‘Warcraft’ Fever Hits China as Advance Sales Reach $20.4 Million

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vkaraujo said:

“Warcraft” advance ticket sales in China totaled an impressive $20.4 million on Monday, two days before the launch of the fantasy-adventure.

“Warcraft” brought in the third-highest midnight pre-sales total for China behind “Furious 7” and “Avengers: Age of Ultron.”

Imax pre-sales for “Warcraft” have already reached a record $6 million in China, far ahead of the $3.7 million for “Captain America: Civil War” on the day before opening. It’s also sold out all of the 285 Imax midnight screenings with $825,000 in advance sales, surpassing the $810,000 record for “Furious 7.”

 

The international performance will be especially key for Universal and Legendary, which spent $160 million to produce “Warcraft.” The tentpole will open June 10 in the U.S., where it’s currently on pace for an opening weekend of less than $25 million, which will likely place it behind the launches of “The Conjuring 2” and “Now You See Me 2.”

 

http://variety.com/2016/film/news/warcraft-box-office-china-pre-sales-1201789304/

Good to have a more or less confirmed financial benchmark for profitability. If it manages a worldwide box office of >$300 million then we are looking at a break even movie. It's already made $70 million overseas and with China adding about $30 million it's 1/3 of the way there. If USA opening weekend is $25 million I don't expect it to get much more than $50 million as I expect fans to see it at the opening, but most of the general audience being swayed by the general scepticism towards video game movies along with the low review scores. So we have $150 million pretty much guaranteed, which means it needs solid openings in the remaining significant markets and reasonable legs to get to $300 million.

Personally I think the opening weekends will need to be pretty good because I don't see the movie having legs.