BEIJING, June 10 — The CGI-heavy Warcarft movie might not have been well loved by film critics but upon its opening in China, the Legendary Pictures feature is breaking records with a US$46 million (RM186.114 million) first day take.
With Warcraft set for a June 10 release in the USA as well as Canada, but having commenced international rollout the week of May 25th, the world’s second largest film market, China, has provided one third of its US$121 million overseas gross in a single day.
Those box office figures, courtesy of Variety and corroborated by Box Office Mojo, make Warcraft a bigger hit than Avengers: Age of Ultron, previous Chinese record holder with a US$28.3 million opening day.
It’s based on a video game franchise now well known for 2004’s ongoing, genre-defining subscription MMO World of Warcraft, while 2003’s Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne inadvertently spawned three of the last decade’s biggest computer games (League of Legends and Dota 2) and ushered in a new era for professional eSports in the process.
The movie was directed by Duncan Jones of Moon and stars Travis Fimmel (Vikings), Paula Patton (Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol), Dominic Cooper (The History Boys), Ben Foster (3:10 to Yuma), and Toby Kebbell (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes). — AFP-Relaxnews
