Despite Weak US Box Office, Warcraft Is the Video Game Movie King

After 10 years of development and waiting, we finally got to see one of the most popular video games ever adapted into a live-action movie. And it wasn’t an easy time getting there. When it was announced back in 2006 that a Warcraft movie would definitely be happening, the project saw a long line of directors and producers coming and going. And once the project locked in Duncan Jones as the director, it took up almost three years of his time. And despite some tepid reviews and weak box office performance in the US ($38 million so far), overseas response has been massive and has made Warcraft the most successful video game movie of all time.

Benefitting from strong performance particularly in China (pulling in a whopping $156 million in 5 days), Warcraft has now pulled in $340 million worldwide. This means is has now passed the previous champion, Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, which made $336 million worldwide, and which was in danger of being unseated by the recent Angry Birds movie, currently at $327 million worldwide. That means roughly 90% of the money Warcraft is making is coming from overseas, and though it’s not the first movie to play poorly domestically and find an international audience, it’s definitely one of the most extreme examples.

Another benefit of the overseas success of Warcraft is that the franchise will likely continue. Though nothing has been confirmed yet, director Duncan Jones had this to say in a recent interview:

“You don’t make films this big and not hope that you’re going to get the chance to make maybe one or two more. I know Chris Metzen, who works at Blizzard and myself have talked about, if we have the chance to make a trilogy, what would story be? And what we set up in this film, I think, I don’t think I’m spoiling anything by saying… The Orcs had a home, they lost their home. Duratan, who’s chieftain of the Frost Worlds has tried to bring his people somewhere to give them a new home. At the end of this movie they don’t quite have that new home yet. I would hope by the end of the trilogy we know where the Orcs are going to live.“

So, how about it? Who’s down for a sequel to the most successful video game movie ever? And who thinks that Warcraft should enjoy the spot for as long as it lasts because Assassin’s Creed might just put a knife in their back come December?

Featured Image: Blizzard / Legendary