WARCRAFT Movie Trailer (2016)
UPDATE, THURSDAY, 8:42 AM PT: Day two of Warcrafts China invasion came on strong with a current range of $44.5M-$46.5M (292M-305M rmb). That gives the Legendary/Universal fantasy actioner the biggest Thursday box office of all time in the Middle Kingdom, splashing past the record set by The Mermaid (249M rmb) earlier this year. That film went on to become the highest grosser ever in the market at a USD exchange of $527M. Averaging out todays dollar range, the Duncan Jones-helmed Warcraft drops just 1% from Wednesday; if the high-end holds, it grows by 1%. Todays play which saw Warcraft dominate 81% of all turnstile spins gives the feature adaptation of Blizzard Entertainments video game a mainland China total of $90.6M-$92.2M (595M-605M rmb) and counting. The rest of international is at $78M through Wednesday.
The film passed the 500M rmb milestone at 4:46 PM local time this afternoon which is believed also to be a record. Only two other films have ever passed that benchmark in their first two days of release: The Mermaid in February, and Universals own Furious 7 last April. Based on current numbers, this is the first time in history that a film has exceeded 600M rmb in two days. Prior to the Azerothians, the two-day record was held by the F7 crew with 586M rmb.
Warcrafts performance out of the gate is stunning, but not necessarily a huge surprise in this market where advance ticket sales were through the roof. The game has a long history in China where fantasy is big even the local title for World of Warcraft translates to World of Magical Beasts and the move to get it on screens during a key holiday was a prescient play. Its also got a lot of local muscle behind it in the form of Legendary owner Wanda (which also owns 18% of PROC screens) and the films Chinese equity and brand partners. Weekend projections are steadily rising from the mooted high-end of $150M
PREVIOUS, WEDNESDAY 9:16 AM PT: Warcraft blasted out of the gate today in China with $46M(302M rmb) at the box office as of 10 PM local time. The Legendary Pictures/Universal Pictures adaptation of the popular video game franchise set a record for the best first-day box office for a non-weekend release in the Middle Kingdom. The previous title holder was Avengers: Age Of Ultron with $28.3M (185.86 rmb).
The midnight screenings, which began Tuesday, posted $7.6M (49.78M rmb), falling just shy of Furious 7s record which was set last year with $7.9M (52.47M rmb). In Imax, however, the Orcs bit down on a record for midnights with $1.38M (9.03M rmb). Including Imaxmidnights, Warcraft posted $5.33M (35M rmb) for the full opening day, hitting a new milestone for the format. That tops F7s $4.7M (31M rmb) from last April. Overall advance Imaxticket sales also bested all previous comers with $8.2M (53.8M rmb).
Opening estimates on Warcrafts five-day launch, which comes during a holiday period, have been hovering between 800M rmb and 1B rmb which would put the range at $122M-$152M. It now looks more than likely that the citizens of Azeroth blow past the high end of those industry projections kids are off and the Dragon Boat Festival begins tomorrow.
The Duncan Jones-helmed feature also sets a new milestone for the widest release ever in the Middle Kingdom, playing on an unprecedented 67.5% of all screens. The previous record holder for widest release was Universals own F7 last year. It bowed on 62.8% of screens and went on to final at $391M, becoming the biggest Hollywood title ever in China.
Wanda now owns Legendary, and its exhibition circuit has 18% of the 39K Middle Kingdom screens. That relationship clearly is helping here, while others booked Warcraft with gusto in the market which has a long history and love for the games.
Legendarys local release partners are China Film Group and Huaxia. Warcraft has four Chinese equity partners: Tencent, CFG, Huayi and Taihe. Universal is understood to be in for about 25%-30% of the full reported $160M budget and will reap the benefits of all releases as part of the overall pie. After beginning international rollout on May 25, and with strong plays in Russia and Germany, the current estimated overseas cume is $121M.
The film is set for domestic release Friday with projections of about $25M for the weekend. If Warcraft continues its magical ride as expected in China, it kicks off the Legendary/Wanda relationship in a big way. It also potentially sends a signal that films which have great uptake internationally and especially in China may not need rely on North America quite so much.
Source: http://deadline.com/2016/06/warcraft-china-record-opening-box-office-imax-results-1201769124/
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