Warcraft Becomes Most Successful Videogame Movie of All Time, Mostly Thanks to China

In spite of dismal critical and box office reception in the United States, Warcraft has become the most financially successful film based off a videogame. In the two weeks since its release, it has brought in $377.6 million, Box Office Mojo reports. China has been responsible for more than $200 million of its gross, a sign for how important the Chinese market has become for Hollywood. Warcraft broke both China’s record for highest opening week gross, by earning $156 million, and China’s record for appearing on the most screens, with 67.5 percent of the theater screens in China showing the film in its opening weekend.

This is contrasted against Warcraft’s rather pitiful performance stateside. Warcraft made only $24.2 million domestically in its opening weekend, and fell to just $6.5 million in its second weekend, an almost record-breaking revenue drop of 73 percent. And yet, it is now internationally the highest-grossing videogame film of all time, beating out Prince of Persia’s $336 million, though domestically Tomb Raider beats both at $131 million.

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It’s unclear if this will be enough to warrant a sequel. Warcraft’s budget was a massive $160 million and, according to THR, Warcraft needs to make $450 million just to break even. Brogan Morris, in his review for Paste, wrote that Warcraft “looks cheap, like a made-for-TV movie from SyFy, with obvious sets, awkward actor/CG-environment interaction and Paula Patton “transformed” into an orc-human hybrid via the magic of green body paint.” Since Warcraft spent basically its whole run-time spouting exposition, maybe if a sequel does get made, it will have time for actual characters and an interesting plot.