The Warcaft movie hasn’t been as much of an overwhelming cultural phenomenon as the game(s) it’s based on, but despite disappointing critical reception and poor performance domestically, it’s taken in enough moviegoer dollars overseas to make it the most financially successful video game movie of all time. That’s good news for all those sequels the movie seemed to assume it would get.
According to Box Office Mojo, the CGI-heavy fantasy flick has drawn in over $200 million in China, which is enough to push its total global haul to $377.6 million. With a budget of $160 million, that’s surely not as much as Legendary Pictures and Universal were hoping for off of such a popular property, but it’s plenty enough to justify more Warcraft movies in the future. At least we can hope that forthcoming installments will see a bump in quality now that all the story setup has been taken care of in the first one.
It’s also enough to make Warcraft the biggest video game movie ever worldwide, topping Prince of Persia‘s $336 million in 2010, even if U.S. totals don’t come close to Tomb Raider‘s $131 million domestic take. China’s proven a strong source of revenue for certain big blockbusters lately, with Furious 7, Transformers: Age of Extinction, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Jurassic World, and Avatar all seeing plenty of ticket sales there, and Warcraft has now joined them at number 12 on China’s top all-time box office chart.
Warcraft director Duncan Jones has, of course, already indicated that he’d be up for sequels if they became an option, and it’s looking like that might just be possible despite the movie’s near-record 73% box office drop in its second weekend (from an unimpressive first weekend). Expect a whole lot of “How did this get made?” when the trailer for the sequel hits, and the answer is that U.S. ticket sales and popularity aren’t the only things that matter.
(via Eurogamer, image via Universal Pictures)
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