Warcraft is being blasted by critics for its dullness and incessant focus on setting up future sequels at the expense of the current movie, but that has not stopped the film from completely storming its way through the Chinese box office, where it’s doing even better than its previous number one non-weekend launch, Avengers: Age of Ultron.
The news isn’t entirely that surprising. China loves the hell out of World of Warcraft, and Chinese users make up a significant number of the MMORPG’s userbase. After last night’s opening in China, Warcraft took a whopping $US46 million ($62 million), the best non-weekend launch in the country’s history, taking the title from Avengers: Age of Ultron, which brought in $US28.3 million ($38.1 million) when it opened in May last year.
Combine that with around the roughly $US75 million ($101 million) it’s made internationally already, and it looks like America (which currently has a projected $US25 million [$33.6 million] opening ahead of tonight’s release) is the only region not really feeling the movie. That success though has suddenly increased the chances of there being a Warcraft sequel, so maybe all that time this first film spent setting up things might actually pay off if Warcraft 2: Karazhan Boogaloo gets approved.
[Variety]