Over the last few weeks, it was believed that Universal’s and Legendary’s fantasy film “Warcraft,” which opened this weekend, was certain to be one of the biggest flops of the summer, if not of the year.
The $160 million would-be tentpole franchise, based on a video game that peaked in popularity over a decade ago, has gotten practically nothing but terrible reviews, and was expected to gross, at best, something in the mid-$20 millions this weekend. And it did, coming in at second place with $24 million.
Ordinarily, that would be a disaster for any film costing as much as “Warcraft” did – if it wasn’t for China. Luckily for Universal, unlike here in the USA, the “Warcraft” video game is still very popular in China (the film opened there last week), and that, without question, helped its overall box office.
In China “Warcraft” premiered with over $91 million in just two days, making it the single highest opening ever for any film in the country, and accounted for 81% of all Chinese box office numbers. To date, the film has grossed $144.7 million in China and could make as much as $200 million there alone.
Add to that the rest of the film’s overseas b.o. numbers, such as in Russia and Germany, where the film is also doing extremely well, and it turns out that “Warcraft” has made over $276 million internationally to date; and it’s very possible that Universal and Legendary could break even, or maybe make a profit, showing, once again, the power of the overseas box office. Even when things look bleak, there’s always hope on the horizon.
In the meantime, ‘The Conjuring 2,” as expected, was the No. 1 film this weekend, coming very close to match the weekend opening of the original 2013 film. The sequel pulled in $40 million, a minor 4% drop compared to the first film, which made $41 million, and went on to gross over $137 million domestically.
However, the other sequel that opened this weekend, “Now You See Me 2,” came in at third with $24 million less than some experts were predicting. Though one has to ask whether there really was any demand to see a sequel for this film? A “Conjuring” sequel I can see, but who was asking for “Now You See Me 2”? People liked the first one that much? The first film was a sleeper hit, but it grossed much less than “The Conjuring,” yet they just had to make a sequel.
“E.T.,” when adjusted for inflation made $1.2 billion just in the U.S. alone, and is the fourth highest grossing film domestically of all time, but they never made a sequel for that film. Once was enough. Why spoil it?
As for the rest of the films currently in release, once again it’s looking like a very bad summer for the film studios. Last week’s number one film, “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows,” dropped some 58%, down to fourth place, with $14. 8 million, meaning that TMNT 3 is not very likely as this point.
And “X Men: Apocalypse” dropped another 56%, with $10 million, bringing into question again what Fox is going to do with the Marvel property, as more voices call for the studio to sell it back to Marvel, since they’ve pretty much blown it.
The only saving grace will be Disney/Pixar’s “Finding Dory” which opens next week, and it’s likely to open huge. But even it could be the biggest grossing film of the summer, as some are saying, it’s not going to be enough to save the season.
1) The Conjuring 2 WB $40,350,000
2) Warcraft Uni. $24,356,000
3) Now You See Me 2 LG/S $23,025,000
4) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows Par. $14,800,000 TOTAL: $61,039,783
5) X-Men: Apocalypse Fox $10,000,000 TOTAL: $136,374,195
6) Me Before You WB $9,210,000 TOTAL: $36,822,578
7) The Angry Birds Movie Sony $6,700,000 TOTAL: $98,169,623
8) Alice Through the Looking Glass BV $5,544,821 TOTAL: $62,437,432
9) Captain America: Civil War BV $4,300,195 TOTAL: $396,857,343
10) The Jungle Book BV $2,721,250 TOTAL: $175 9
11) Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising Uni. $2,135,000 TOTAL: $53,103,225
12) The Nice Guys WB $2,100,000 TOTAL: $32,642,192
