How Chinese movie fans made Warcraft the most successful video game adaptation of all time

Directed by Duncan Jones and starring Vikings’ Travis Fimmel, Warcraft flopped in the US, but made US$156 million just in its first five days in China in 2016

In retrospect that shouldn’t have come as a surprise – not only is China the world’s biggest entertainment market, it has an estimated 740 million gamers

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A still from Warcraft: The Beginning (2016). Despite flopping badly in the US, the film made a massive US$156 million in its first five days on release in China.

Published: 3:15pm, 6 Aug 2021Updated: 3:15pm, 6 Aug 2021

Movie adaptations of video games are usually terrible, and the 2016 movie Warcraft is no exception to the rule – even if it is classier than most.

Based on the wildly successful World of Warcraft strategy game franchise, and directed by Duncan Jones (Moon, Source Code), Warcraft pits huge computer-generated orcs (including Destroyer’s Toby Kebbell) against humans (including Vikings’ Travis Fimmel) on the planet of Azeroth, and plays like a mash-up of just about every modern fantasy film.

Warcraft was co-produced by Legendary Pictures, a subsidiary of the Chinese conglomerate Wanda Group – not that you’d know it from the cast list, which features only one Asian actor, the underused Daniel Wu Yin-cho.

Although it was a box-office flop in the United States, the movie smashed box office records in China, making US$156 million in its first five days – the biggest opening for any foreign film released there. As a point of comparison, 2015’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens made US$124 million in China over its entire run.

While the critics scratched their heads, the film’s box office take in China helped it topple 2010’s Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time to become the most successful video game adaptation of all time.