Reviews for Warcraft haven't been good, with more than a few critics saying the film spends too much time setting up sequels that will never see the light of day.
Those critics may have spoken too soon, because it looks like Warcraft will do just fine thanks to a huge opening day in China. As reported by Forbes, the Duncan Jones-directed film brought in $46 million when it opened in the Middle Kingdom on June 8.
The film's Chinese gross is expected to only grow over the course of the upcoming weekend, with many experts believing the film could bring in close to $150 million by the end of the week. It's also proving to be big hit for IMAX, which reports a record of $5.3 million in ticket sales for the film.
It's the second biggest opening day for a film in Chinese box office history, soaring past the one-day totals for movies like Avengers: Age of Ultron and Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The only movie it has failed to surpass so far is Furious 7, which brought in $63 million on its opening day.
It's an entirely different story when it comes to Warcraft's projected domestic totals. The film opens in U.S. theaters this Friday, June 10, and is expected to only bring in around $25 million on its opening weekend.
However, in this scenario the United States is but a small piece of a larger pie. The film is expected to perform well in Asian markets, and it has already brought in $75 million from across various countries where the film has already been released, including the United Kingdom. Even if Warcraft only brings in $75 million domestically, as has been estimated, the film could easily blow past the $300 million worldwide gross mark, thanks to China.
Sure, it's not a home run. The film cost $160 million to create and no doubt Legendary has spent millions more on marketing the film. But $300 million plus is still nothing to sneeze at, and it's possible the film could perform better domestically than analysts are currently predicting.
The movie, if nothing else, should catch the attention of those who have played Blizzard's Warcraft game series. The environments featured in the film are ripped straight from the popular MMO World of Warcraft, and the film looks to play fairly closely to Blizzard's official game version of events.
All together, it seems safe to say more Warcraft films will likely be on the way. It's only a matter of when.
