Despite some lukewarm reviews, Warcraft: The Beginning has become the highest grossing video-game movie ever made. It might not have done particularly well in the United States, seeing a huge drop off from its opening weekend to the second, but thanks to overseas success and particularly in China, Warcraft is a huge success.
Previously the king of the video-game movie hill was Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, which made just over $336 million, but Warcraft has now eclipsed that with a near $380 million revenue so far. Over half of that has come from China's rabid fanbase though, which shows that not only is Warcraft a popular international franchise, but that China has a far greater interest in video game movies than the U.S.
Surprising really, considering how large the American video game industry is.
This does continue to show the importance of China as a market for filmmakers though. Iron Man 3 famously had a number of additional scenes filmed just in China to help court audiences into watching it and that was a big success.
While we wouldn't expect a Warcraft sequel to have Chinese characters, we wouldn't put it past the studios adding a few extra Chinese actors to help court audiences once again.
Have you seen Warcraft The Beginning? If so, what did you think?
