Despite horrible reviews, Warcraft has surprisingly done really, really well in China.
The film is based on the popular video game World Of Warcraft and debuted at number two in the North American box office with an estimated $24 million. That might seem like a lot of money, but it’s just a fraction of what the film made in China. In China, people apparently love Warcraft.
In the first five days of its release, Warcraft grossed $156 million in China, which is the largest debut of a foreign title in the country’s history. On opening night alone, the film grossed $46 million making it the best non-weekend movie opening in China ever.
To understand just how massive this is, here are a couple things to compare it to. The current record for biggest non-weekend movie opening in China belongs to Avengers: Age of Ultron which grossed $28.3 million during its opening. Warcaft grossed more money in five days than both Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Batman Vs. Superman did in their entire theater run in China. It’s not like those movies did poorly either — Star Wars grossed $125.4 million and Batman Vs. Superman raked in $95.8 million.
What’s particularly surprising about Warcaft’s record-breaking week is the fact that it’s been critically lauded as terrible. The film got a measly half a star from Roger Ebert who said that it was “easily a contender for the worst movie of the year.” Rotten Tomatoes rated it at just 22 percent, and The New York Daily News thought “Somebody should have put this script to the sword.”
Though China does make up a huge portion of World Of Warcraft’s user base, it’s still quite shocking that a movie regarded as so awful has made so, so much money. How does a movie that’s supposed to be such a massive flop become a major box office success? We’re not sure, but maybe the people behind Warcraft were taking tips from whoever was responsible for the entire Transformers movie franchise.
