Warcraft Has Made More Money than Any Other Video Game Movie

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Warcraft Has Made More Money than Any Other Video Game Movie

//cdn.themis-media.com/media/global/images/library/deriv/1330/1330735.jpgThe Warcraft movie is now the most successful video game film ever made.

Despite being roundly panned by critics (A 32 on the Warcraft movie [http://www.metacritic.com/movie/warcraft] has now made more money than any other video game movie in history. Since 2010, that record has been held by Prince of Persia, which grossed $336 million. That has finally been surpassed, as Warcraft has now grossed $377 million worldwide.

The ticket sales numbers come from Box Office Mojo [http://www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=4199&p=.htm], which notes that Warcraft's revenues fell 73% on its second weekend. That is the third-largest second weekend drop for a movie in over 3,000 theaters. Only 2009's Friday the 13th and Fifty Shades of Grey fell harder.

Roughly $200 million of the Warcraft total comes from China, where the movie has been much more well received. Our own Cinemarter said of the movie [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/moviesandtv/reviews/cinemarter/17101-Warcraft-2016-Video-Game-Movie-Review], "It's not bad enough to say 'don't see it,' but it's also not likely worth your time unless you're already a fan of the games."




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[Worgen]

Man, this could have just been another video game fail movie, but no. China had to come and get all excited and watch it. Fricken boo.

 

[Queen Michael]

Honestly, 29% isn't t h a t bad. It's not great, but it does mean that roughly a third of the audience liked it.

 

[Zhukov]

I do wonder what the Chinese see in it.

That's not even a "Ohh, how can they like that garbage" snipe. I'm genuinely curious.

Maybe the translators wrote better dialogue or something.

 

[Eric the Orange]

Well As someone who hasn't seen the movie but is a fan of the Warcraft story and lore I hope this means that they can make more and get to some of the better stories that the world has. (the original "Warcraft: Orcs and Humans" is pretty shallow as far as story is concerned.)

 

[Covarr]

What's sad is that some of the best video game movies (Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professor_Layton_and_the_Eternal_Diva], Animal Crossing [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C5%8Dbutsu_no_Mori_(film)]) go completely unnoticed or even unreleased in the west. IMO, Animal Crossing in particular can hold its own against most of Studio Ghibli's output in terms of pure heart (though not animation quality, even if it is a pretty movie), and manages to be faithful to the game in the best possible way.

But let's keep making cynical AAA blockbusters because they're easy to market and will succeed even if they suck.

P.S. Thanks

 

[Jadak]

From personal experience, a lot of my friends thoroughly enjoyed the movie

They actually said or implied 'thoroughly'? I also agree that it's not as bad as the critics would suggest and liked it well enough, but "thoroughly" is a bit of a stretch.

 

[Mr.Mattress]

The only positives I can see from a mediocre/bad movie being successful is that; 1) The studio at least made their money back, and 2) this means we'll get sequels and we can hope the sequels are better. I'm really hoping that by the WarCraft III movie(s) they finally get everything together and we get decent movies.

The other positive about this movie specifically making money is that it made its money from China, so now we're going to start seeing more Chinese-centric films, which will be a huge plus to America (I can only think of Kung Fu Panda with a Chinese Focus this year) and the film industry.

 

[Frankster]

Heh, the people from that Warcraft movie thread will be happy, lack of commercial success leading to no sequels was the big worry but seems like people are going to see this film regardless.

Never realized warcraft was so big in china though, then again, I don't know much about chinese culture to begin with.

 

[MrCalavera_v1legacy]

The thing that surprises me the most is how often i hear about people that are NOT into Warcraft, and yet enjoyed this movie.

Maybe it just is one of these movies that critics love to shit on, but general audience have fun with, like Kung Pow for example... don't know if i should be glad or worried.

 

[COMaestro]

...like Kung Pow for example...

There are people who actually enjoyed that movie??? It was so bad I have almost entirely blocked out all memory of it. It was just horrible.

 

[Kaimax]

Good for them I guess?

If this can translate into them making better sequels, then I'm fine with it.

 

[Evonisia]

Hopefully we'll eventually get a "Warcraft III" film out of this, then. Though even with China's support it doesn't look like it'll make a whole lot of money compared to budget + marketing etc.

 

[Hawki]

As someone who has seen the movie, I'm mixed. Very mixed.

I left my more detailed thoughts on the movie itself in Mater's review article, so I'll compress my thoughts here to:

a) I enjoyed the film, as flawed as it was (very, VERY flawed), so this is good in that it might greenlight a sequel. A better sequel.

b) But this is still a case of "crap selling." Not that the movie was crap, but it's by no means better than Prince of Persia, or better than the multitude of actually "good" movies I've seen in cinemas this year (about ten "good," two "excellent")

c) I'm also reminded of the Transformers and Resident Evils movies selling well. Warcraft is still a cut above them, but at least with Resident Evil, successive sequels resulted in successive drops in quality.

d) Doesn't help me that the film ends on blatant sequel bait.

e) And yet, I wouldn't mind the next two proposed films, adapting Tides of Darkness and Beyond the Dark Portal respectively. I know, everyone wants Reign of Chaos adapted, but I can't see that being done in one movie, since the whole game effectively changes protagonists with each campaign. Not that I'd say "no" to said adaptation, but walk before you can run and all that.

f) So, fine, I'll take a second movie, under the proviso that it's an improvement.

 

[Morti]

Excelent, with any luck this means we might get another with a bit more budget and expertise afforded to it.

 

[Wrex Brogan]

Listen, so long as they make a sequel where the dialogue between the human characters flows a little better, I'm down with it. I saw it yesterday and LOVED it (man the orcs were great) but... yeah, wow, someone needs to rework that dialogue.

And make the exposition a little easier to swallow. Fuck me, that was awkward sometimes with the 'Oh yes he's this guy, ruler of asshole land'. I know it's an adaption of Warcraft 1 which was FULL of awkward exposition, but still. Damn.

...And quit having characters who exist just for fanservice taking up so much screentime. At the end of the movie I was legitimately thinking 'Either give Hellscream some fucking lines or get him out of the way, by the titans he's been on screen more than Durotan'.

So, you know, cool that they made good money off this then. Thank god for that. But damn, give me more orcs in the next one, or at least less-obvious fan pandering that's to the detriment of the story.

 

[Hawki]

...And quit having characters who exist just for fanservice taking up so much screentime. At the end of the movie I was legitimately thinking 'Either give Hellscream some fucking lines or get him out of the way, by the titans he's been on screen more than Durotan'.

Hellscream? I only spotted him once towards the end. Then again, apparently Kargath and/or Kilrogg were also spotted, so maybe I'm just blind.

Honestly, I think that was the best choice. You have to deal with Durotan, Draka, Gul'dan, Garona, Orgrim, and Blackhand, as your major orc characters, along with setting up Go'el/Thrall. Taking this as an adaptation of Orcs and Humans, Blackhand, Garona, and Orgrim are pretty much obliged to be there, and given the timeframe, Durotan and Draka are more or less obliged as well. Considering that Grom didn't appear in the games until Beyond the Dark Portal, giving him a cameo now rather than squeezing him in seems like the best choice. The movie's already stretching it in regards to how many characters it sets up, and of all those characters I listed, only Garona and Orgrim have distinct character arcs in the scope of the movie.

 

[Wrex Brogan]

...And quit having characters who exist just for fanservice taking up so much screentime. At the end of the movie I was legitimately thinking 'Either give Hellscream some fucking lines or get him out of the way, by the titans he's been on screen more than Durotan'.

Hellscream? I only spotted him once towards the end. Then again, apparently Kargath and/or Kilrogg were also spotted, so maybe I'm just blind.

Honestly, I think that was the best choice. You have to deal with Durotan, Draka, Gul'dan, Garona, Orgrim, and Blackhand, as your major orc characters, along with setting up Go'el/Thrall. Taking this as an adaptation of Orcs and Humans, Blackhand, Garona, and Orgrim are pretty much obliged to be there, and given the timeframe, Durotan and Draka are more or less obliged as well. Considering that Grom didn't appear in the games until Beyond the Dark Portal, giving him a cameo now rather than squeezing him in seems like the best choice. The movie's already stretching it in regards to how many characters it sets up, and of all those characters I listed, only Garona and Orgrim have distinct character arcs in the scope of the movie.

Yeah, Hellscream, Kargath and Kilrogg were all over the orc scenes - often in the background, but they were in damn-near every scene where Blackhand was (so things like inside Gul'dan's tent, during several of the battlescenes, you get to see them fight in the final battle moment as well). Hellscream's easier to see since you just try to spot the Gorehowl.

I understand why they weren't involved - it's a character dense movie already - it's just... yeah, the way they were framed made it look like they were going to be important to the story at hand? Like, as a fan I'm sitting there going 'hey yeah, it's that guy!' and know all about their lore, but outside of being a fan it was... very noticeable, but without having that knowledge of the lore it's like 'Who is that tall orc with the sweet axe, and why is he in so many scenes? He's clearly being framed as more significant than the background orcs and has a noticeable model, but he's not... doing anything, what gives film makers?'.

I dunno. Could've given him at least one line or something or have someone like Gul'dan or Blackhand address the other Chieftains directly just to give non-fans a clue as to who all these characters are and why they've got so much focus for being in the background. Just something other than blatant fan-pandering.