The highly anticipated movie reboot of Mortal Kombat has broken records with its R-rated red-band trailer, clocking over 116 million views in its first week.

A red-band trailer, usually only screened on the Internet, signals to viewers that the content contains more sex, violence, swear words and emotionally charged scenes than the green-band versions that are approved for all audiences.

Mortal Kombat, based on a violent video game, promises lots of blood and gore with its preview, which beat the red-band trailers for superhero movies Logan (2017) and Deadpool 2 (2018).

The movie, which will open in the United States and online on HBO Max on April 16, trended in 52 markets on YouTube and 28 markets on Twitter, according to entertainment website Deadline. It has also gone viral with a high reposting rate and garnered rave reviews on Reddit and gaming sites.

Video gaming news site GameSpot wrote: "It's loaded with the kind of blood, gore and crazy superhuman abilities fans of the video game series have come to expect… It's also packed with a bunch of iconic characters from the franchise, giving them each time to shine."

The film, with an ensemble cast includes Ludi Lin, Joe Taslim and Hiroyuki Sanada, is the third Mortal Kombat movie.

The first was released in 1995 to great success, but its 1997 sequel Annihilation did not do so well.