Warcraft

[GeneChing]

[GeneChing]

MOVIES


MAY 5, 2016
‘WARCRAFT’ MOVIE TO BE RELEASED IN CHINA BEFORE THE U.S. TO CASH IN ON A GAME-LOVING SOCIETY

RACHEL TSOUMBAKOS

U.S. fans anticipating the release of the Warcraft movie will have to avoid online spoilers for two days prior to the U.S. premiere on June 10, thanks to the movie being released early in China.

According to BBC News, the Warcraft movie will premiere in China on June 8, 2016, two days before the U.S. gets to see the movie. So, for fans who have been desperate to get their first glimpse of Warcraft on the big screen, they will have to wait just that little bit longer, avoiding potential spoilers in the meantime.


[Image via Legendary]

It is likely game fans of the Warcraft movie will be able to guess the storyline from the trailers already released. However, some fans will go to extremes to avoid not only spoilers, but critics — and fan — reactions to the movie. When the Star Wars: The Force Awakens movie premiered, it was not unheard of for mega fans to temporarily block their friends on Facebook in order to avoid unwanted information on the movie.
Blocking your friends on Facebook can be a bit extreme, so perhaps Warcraft fans who don’t want any spoilers beforehand can spend the two days between premieres reading the Warcraft graphic novel to be released on June 7 as a way to avoid the internet and all the spoilers likely to occur there. The 112-page hardcover graphic novel will retail for $24.99, and is based on a story by Blizzard’s Chris Metzen and written by Paul Cornell.


[Image via Legendary]

But why is China lucky enough to get the Warcraft movie two days prior to the U.S.? According to BBC News, the answer is simple: gaming is big in China. Even with its special “toned down” version of the game renamed World of Magic Beasts over there that covers up skeletons and darkens blood to a “less shocking hue.” China Film Insider states that the hope is rabid gamers in China will lap up a movie like Warcraft. After all, gaming is huge in China and CFI states Niko Partners estimates gaming sales are predicted to be worth around $20.4 billion by 2020.
And this is not the first time China has been privy to a blockbuster movie release before the U.S. According to Deadline, Point Break (the remake), Penguins of Madagascar, and Iron Man 3 all debuted in China first.

Also worth noting is that the Warcraft movie release in China will coincide with a minor holiday, according to Variety. The Dragon Boat Holiday will fall on June 7, one day prior to the release of the Warcraft movie and a great incentive for people to get out and see a movie on their time off.


[Image via Legendary]

Legendary’s website provides the synopsis and other movie details for Warcraft, via the blurb below.

“Legendary’s Warcraft is a 3D epic adventure of world-colliding conflict based upon Blizzard Entertainment’s globally-renowned universe. Directed by Duncan Jones (Moon, Source Code) and written by Charles Leavitt and Duncan Jones, the film is a Legendary Pictures, Blizzard Entertainment and Atlas Entertainment production. The producers are Charles Roven, Thomas Tull, Jon Jashni, Alex Gartner and Stuart Fenegan. Jillian Share, Brent O’Connor, Michael Morhaime and Paul Sams serve as executive producers. Rob Pardo, Chris Metzen, Nick Carpenter and Rebecca Steel Roven co-produce.”

Are you looking forward to the Warcraft movie? Will you try to avoid the spoilers or people’s opinions on the movie, or are you not bothered by that sort of thing? Let us know by commenting below.

The Warcraft movie will be released in 3D by Universal Pictures on Friday, June 10. For fans of Aussie actor Travis Fimmel, Warcraft has been reported by News.com.au as premiering in Australia on June 16.

[Image via Universal Pictures/Legendary]

The main reason I started this thread here was because Daniel Wu (JAN+FEB 2016 cover master) is voicing one of the main orcs.

[GeneChing]

China’s Blatant Knock-off “World of Warcraft” Movie Wins Race to Theaters
Charles Liu, May 13, 2016 10:04am

China’s booming film industry has gotten a lot of international attention lately, resulting in high-profile collaborations, like Captain America: Civil War directors Anthony and Joe Russo. However, domestic films made in China don’t seem to do well overseas, such as the failure of last year’s summer blockbuster Monster Hunt to win over foreign audiences.

But if there’s an area of Chinese film that shows how low and depraved domestic filmmakers are willing to stoop, it’s the knock-off. Some filmmakers liberally borrow from popular overseas films.

People in China were quick to criticize the marketing for Chinese film Crazy Toy City, whose Chinese name and movie poster are next to identical to that of recent Disney animated hit, Zootopia. As well, last year’s animated film The Autobots drew scorn when its character models were revealed to be the same as those from Pixar’s Cars franchise, including the dubious anthromorphic choice to depict a car’s eyes using its windshield instead of its headlights.

And now, this summer, audiences will get a chance to enjoy the latest knock-off from the Chinese film industry: My Wow, a movie whose Chinese title (我的魔兽世界) literally means “My World of Warcraft”.

The story details of My Wow have not been revealed, so in all fairness we can’t fully say if this is a knock-off of the long-running, extremely popular online role-playing game World of Warcraft that has undeniably impacted Chinese culture, and more than a few desktop wallpapers.

So far, all that we know is that the story will involve disparate elements of love, fantasy, and time travel. And if we’re staying true to the Chinese title, the tagline to the movie is translated to English as: “A man gets transported to a fantasy world of warcraft, where the impossible occurs…”



The movie’s promotional event had venerable Hong Kong character actor Jatfei Wong (seen above) posing with two people dressed up in the unmistakable armor aesthetic of World of Warcraft.

The promotional press conference for My Wow took place last month, revealing that the movie will hit theaters this month, coincidentally just weeks ahead of the expected summer release of World of Warcraft, another movie that has been influenced by the video game of the same name.

Even though its already the middle of May, we have yet to see a release date for My Wow, or even any promotional video or materials that didn’t debut at the April 15 press conference in Shijiazhuang. All that we have is the earnest words of director Zhang Wei:

I have injected the entirety of my fervor and passion into this movie, completely depleting the whole of my efforts to show a spectacle that is both sensible to a logical mind and yet remains an unceasing marvel for the eyes to behold.
Movie fans in China weren’t as charitable with their words.

One person was nothing short of straightforward in what he thought of the movie. “It’s clear what you want to do: have your fake ‘World of Warcraft’ movie play in theaters before it the real one does. I don’t care what you think. No one is going to see your movie, or at the very least, I won’t,” he wrote.

Another person wrote “Never before have I ever seen such a shameless dog,” while another said, “Guessing that ‘Father’ Blizzard (makers of the World of Warcraft video game) will sue them for copyright infringement!!”

All the same, even before seeing the film My Wow or even its slower-by-a-hair doppleganger companion piece World of Warcraft, we know that “fantasy” or “time travel” content will come under scrutiny by state censors for the same reason that World of Warcraft (the video game) underwent years before.



Even though the World of Warcraft video game (popularly shortened to “WoW”) has catered to their its Chinese fan base by devoting an expansion pack to them that featured a playable race called ”the Pandaren” (seen above), WoW still had much of its content cut by Chinese censors. Because supernatural elements are shunned and disavowed by state authorities, Chinese WoW players never got to see their defeated foes represented by skeletons. Instead, dead enemies simply turned into boxes of loot, inspiring Chinese players to rename the game as “World of Boxes”.

It may turn out that My Wow will be an enjoyable film with nothing at all to do with World of Warcraft. After all, Jatfei Wong is in it, and he was great in 2001’s Shaolin Soccer as the chain smoking steel-headed eldest brother of a band of monks. On the other hand, Wong is no stranger to knock-offs. He also appeared in Jay Chou’s Kung Fu Dunk, yet another film about misfits who use mystical kung fu skills to win sports competitions.

Source: Duowan, QQ Games, Sohu Media, YX Down, Sina Games, 58Pic
Photos: Sina Games, 58Pic, Duowan, QQ Games

Ah, China cinema. So awesome.

[GeneChing]

I was invited to a screener and considered reviewing it because of its Chollywood impact and its star, JAN+FEB 2016 cover master Daniel Wu. But I've got too much on the plate right now to make it. Plus I really don't know much about the game as I'm not a gamer.

‘Warcraft’ Wows With China Pre-Sales Records; How Big Is Its Box Office Game?
by Nancy Tartaglione
June 6, 2016 2:20am


Legendary Pictures

Legendary Pictures and Universal Pictures’ big screen adaptation of Blizzard Entertainment’s video game juggernaut, Warcraft, hits China on June 8, two days ahead of its North American release. This is a savvy move to target the world’s second largest box office market — which has a long and fervent history with the game — during a holiday period. Pre-sales are through the roof and climbing. But along with possibly setting new box office benchmarks, a Middle Kingdom win for Warcraft will also be a key moment for Legendary and its burgeoning relationship with Wanda .

Opening estimates on Warcraft’s five-day launch range from $100M on the conservative end to about $150M. In local currency, I’ve been hearing 800M rmb to a possible 1B rmb which would put the range at $122M-$152M.

The Duncan Jones-helmed fantasy actioner has logged 129 rmb ($19.6M) in advance ticket sales as of this afternoon locally and currently has the 3rd highest midnight pre-sales total of all time, behind Furious 7 and Avengers: Age Of Ultron; it will pass the latter today. All of the 285 midnight IMAX screenings have been sold out at 5.5M rmb ($837K); that tops record holder Furious 7’s 5.4M rmb ($822K at today’s exchange rates). Midnights kick off Tuesday night.


IMAX pre-sales for the full weekend are currently at $6M giving the format its best PROC advances ever. The Orcs and trolls have topped Captain America: Civil War’s $3.7M which was logged as of the day before opening. Azeroth will be seen in the Middle Kingdom in both 2D and 3D theaters.

Given all of those numbers, some are speculating that Warcraft could outpace Furious 7’s $391M total box office which set a record last year as the highest-grossing movie ever in the Middle Kingdom. It has since been overtaken by local titles The Mermaid and Monster Hunt.

There is no question that Warcraft is a monster itself, although there are a couple of factors to keep in mind when comping to Universal’s own F7. That film opened on a Sunday, logging the highest box office, widest release and biggest attendance ever in one day for China with 420 rmb ($68.8M) at the time. The Orcs invade Chinese theaters officially on Wednesday, coming at the end of the high school exams period and as the Dragon Boat Festival holiday kicks in on Thursday. As one person put it, “that’s like having five Saturdays in a row” although some people will be working.

This is not a Universal release in China where it is going out through Legendary, China Film Group and Huaxia. (I understand Universal is in for about 25%-30% of the full reported $160M budget and it will reap the benefits of all releases as part of the overall pie.) This is a quota movie, meaning a 25% return from Middle Kingdom turnstiles. Legendary has four local equity partners: Tencent, CFG, Huayi and Taihe.

The Dalian Wanda Group of course acquired Legendary in a stunning $3.5B deal in January, but had already pledged its muscle behind the film back in September when it said it would use its network to promote and market Warcraft. Wanda and CFG’s involvement here means the film will make a bigscreen invasion. Total counts aren’t divulged until just before opening, but as one watcher puts it, “It will get the most showtimes from when it opens on Wednesday.” I’m already hearing that on Tuesday night there are 2:30 AM showings being added after the midnights. It is also possible that screenings run from Wednesday as early as 7:30 AM and going through to 4AM.

The offshore total box office through Sunday was at an estimated $70M. Reviews have not been out of this world of Warcraft, but that’s not stopping the rush. Strong plays in Russia and Germany have helped to drive that, although the UK ended up being somewhat frontloaded this past week. Gamers have raced out to see Azeroth realized in a feature version, while fantasy fans have also picked up the joystick.

No doubt the film skews male, but it is expected to move beyond gamers in China. If it reaches critical mass at open, it should continue to have momentum above the initial rush. A key factor in bringing girls and women into the multiplexes is local heartthrob Daniel Wu who starred in last year’s hit, Go Away Mr Tumor. He has been on the promotional circuit, doing a Q&A this past week with co-star Paula Patton at the Beijing Film Academy and getting the word out via Instagram and other social media. Travis Fimmel, Ben Foster and Dominic Cooper also star.

Warcraft has 26 different Chinese brand partners involved in the marketing and tie-ins which is larger than any film before it by a factor of two. Among them are Lenovo and Tsingtao – but this isn’t product placement, so don’t expect Anduin Lothar to be knocking back a beer in the film.

Legendary began pulling out the marketing stops about 18 months ago with The Legendary Warcraft Experience at Joycity in Chengdu. There, fans got “the biggest free movie-themed exhibition ever mounted in China” which featured character statues, and over 150 props, weapons and costumes from the film. Fans were also able to take part in a virtual reality ride on the back of the mythical Gryphon as it flew over Azeroth.

China, which has a penchant for fantasy, has had a decade-long fascination with World Of Warcraft; its name there is understood to translate to “World Of Magical Beasts.” The market is estimated to make up about half of the game’s five million players, according to the BBC. The history has been fraught at times, however, as the government exercized controls over the years — only serving to increase the game’s popularity.

In the early days, when the 3D rendered worlds were first made available, it caused a seismic shift in Chinese gaming. The University of Edinburgh’s Lara Arnason recently told The Telegraph that as players were drawn together in the physical spaces of internet cafes and the online realms, “It was the first converged media experience. People were able to form real friendships, and have shared experiences and shared failures, with real online communities of real people. It quite literally changed the game.”

If Warcraft hits as expected in China, it kicks off the Legendary/Wanda relationship in a big way. It will also be an interesting moment in the changing landscape of the international movie business. While it could surprise based on the momentum being generated offshore, Warcraft is looking at about a $25M domestic opening this coming frame. But being a beast in the Middle Kingdom, and coming off those German, Russian and other numbers, encourages the likelihood of a franchise. The film’s subtitle is The Beginning so the sequel seed has already been sown. A source says, “The world is changing with China becoming a bigger and bigger piece. When you have a film that can really play internationally and very strongly in China, maybe that allows you to take a risk and the opportunity to make a franchise out of international. China has more and more of a role to play.”

Another source contends, “The movie makes its money back. China and Russia are nothing but good news for Legendary and Wanda.”

Warcraft producers are Charles Roven, Thomas Tull, Jon Jashni, Alex Gartner and Stuart Fenegan. Jillian Share, Brent O’Connor, Michael Morhaime and Paul Sams are exec producers. Rob Pardo, Chris Metzen, Nick Carpenter and Rebecca Steel Roven co-produce.

[GeneChing]

There are a lot of short vids if you follow the link.

How Daniel Wu balances body and mind with martial arts



June 1, 2016
Chinese-American actor and martial artist Daniel Wu has performed in more than 60 films in Asia. His new U.S. show “Into the Badlands” was recently renewed, and he has a huge role in the film “Warcraft” that opens in theaters today.

In this edition of Inside & Out, Mark Niu catches up with Wu as he prepares for the Hollywood grind by balancing body and mind. Studies have shown that martial arts can help improve concentration as well as reduce high blood pressure and stress.
In Oakland, California, Wu stays in shape physically and mentally before filming for season two of “Into the Badlands” begins.
He’s trained in Shaolin Kung Fu, Wushu, Muay Thai, and western boxing. Five days a week, he works out for two-and-a-half hours.

But his body has suffered in his 41 years. He’s had numerous injuries, including an ACL tear. That’s why he’s now focusing on Martial Arts Yoga — which keeps him flexible, efficient, and fully aware of his body and mind.
“What I’m really trying to do in my practice now in the downtime when we’re not shooting the season is getting my body limber and ready,” Wu said. “That’s why I do a lot of the yoga practice – so that I’m fully aware of my body and have body control.”

Daniel Wu on the importance of spirituality in martial arts:

His trainer Matt Lucas, who owns Open Matt said that Wu is one of the best students.
“I’m trying to get across changing the mind from a goal-oriented mind to a longevity oriented mind,” Lucas said.
“I feel all great martial artists know how to punch and kick, but the idea is get deeper to where the kicks don’t erode your body, where the techniques actually expand your body and don’t erode it away.”
Wu said that when he first practiced martial arts as a child it had a greater spiritual element.
“My first teacher Y.T. Chaing always made sure that we practiced meditation that we learned about how to eat during different times of the year, different seasons, what foods are good for you and what are not, and also teaching us how to do Chinese brush painting,” Wu said. “…to be a good person in this society and that was the spiritual side of it to me.”

Daniel Wu on how he overcame injuries in his martial arts practice:

After he spent more time studying martial arts, he viewed it more as a sport which divorced it from history and tradition, he said.
“Wushu, especially modern wushu especially is almost like a gymnastics floor routine. The spiritual side is not really there, we don’t practice medication,” Wu said.
“Now that I’m older now I’m going back to that, because I feel that there’s a huge value in all of that.”
Wu said that he’s had to overcome injuries such as a torn ACL.
“I’ve seen a lot of my mentors, Jackie Chan and Jet deal with chronic pain and injuries,” Wu said. “So I pulled myself away from the martial arts completely and I didn’t really even practice martial arts for a while until probably two or three years later and I was slowly getting back into it. I realized that martial arts doesn’t have to be about these crazy fancy kicks and all that there’s a whole system there and it’s more about health and well being.”
On the set of Into the Badlands, Wu is the only actor in the main cast with a martial arts background, so they regularly look to him for advice.
He offered some basic martial arts advice to CCTV America: “Don’t straight, do a cross hook. What I wanna do is sell that reaction. No matter how good that punch is the reactor doesn’t react, then it’s worthless.”

Daniel Wu on his career as an actor and martial artist:

Starring as an evil orc in the movie Warcraft, Daniel Wu’s has literally had a transformative year. As executive producer, and star, of Into the Badlands, the actor smashed through bad guys and Hollywood barriers.

Daniel Wu on importance of diversifying martial arts practice:

Wu plays Sunny, the show’s conflicted hero – a rarity for Asian Americans, made rarer by the fact that he’s in a romantic relationship. Wu says Into the Badlands has been the hardest work of his life—having to double duty with drama scenes and fight scenes more complex than anything on U.S. television.

Daniel Wu on how he played an orc:

“The orc I play is the most evil, he’s a kind of leader of all the orcs, in the script it said he’s the not only the ugliest, but the oldest orc. This character, he’s constantly in a horse stance, he’s crouched over the whole time,” Wu said.
“Good thing I’ve done hours and hours of horse stance training when I was a young kid. Because that’s what I was doing the whole time, walking like that walking in a crouch and walking like this orc.”

[GeneChing]

I honestly didn't think much of this project when Daniel Wu mentioned it to me. As I've said before, I'm not a gamer so I was only marginally aware of its potential. But now I see the play.

Warcraft is already breaking Chinese box office records
By William Hughes
Jun 7, 2016 7:00 PM



Proving that its appeal extends beyond popular actresses with lucrative yogurt contracts, the Warcraft movie is apparently already setting box-office records in China. According to Chinese box office analyst Jonathan Papist, a writer for China Film Insider, the new movie’s midnight opening earned 55.4 million Chinese yuan (or $8.4 million) in a single night. That surpasses the record previously set by last year’s Furious 7, which ultimately went on to bring in $390 million in the country over its entire run. (For the record, that’s more than the movie managed to pull in domestically, by quite a bit.)

China Box Office @ChinaBoxOffice
WARCRAFT earned est. ¥55.4M ($8.4M) from Tuesday midnight screenings, tops Furious 7's all-time midnight record.
7:51 AM - 7 Jun 2016
272 272 Retweets 272 272 likes

The lucrative nature of China’s market for big blockbuster spectacles has become a well-heeded reality in the film business, with studios sometimes filming special, China-centric scenes for flicks expected to do well overseas and stars like Bruce Willis signing on for films in the country’s growing movie industry. Foreign movie companies do occasionally have to contend with the country’s limits on what kinds of films are allowed to be shown—following, for instance, a 2011 ban on time-travel movies that might make people nostalgic for the past—but the potential rewards for a crowd-pleasing CGI smash-em-up like Warcraft are usually too tasty to resist.

[GeneChing]

Starting to regret not reviewing this...

Critics, be ****ed: ‘Warcraft’ has largest opening day at China’s box office in 2016
Thursday June 9, 2016
09:09 AM GMT+8


Cast members Paula Patton and Travis Fimmel pose with cosplay enthusiasts at the premiere of the ‘Warcraft’ movie in Hollywood, California, June 6, 2016. — Reuters pic

BEIJING, June 9 — Warcraft, the Chinese-backed Hollywood film based on the popular online game, raked in the highest opening day at China’s box office this year, shaping up into a windfall for billionaire Wang Jianlin’s Legendary Entertainment.

The movie, co-produced by Legendary and backed by gaming giant Tencent Holdings Ltd, generated 300.4 million yuan (RM185 million) in ticket sales across Chinese cinemas yesterday, according to industry-data provider EntGroup Inc. That beat the 272 million yuan that Stephen Chow’s The Mermaid brought in when it debuted earlier this year, according to EntGroup.

IN THE GALLERY


Cosplay enthusiasts wait at the premiere of the movie ‘Warcraft’ in Hollywood, California, June 6, 2016. — Reuters pic


A cosplay enthusiast waits at the premiere of the movie ‘Warcraft’ in Hollywood, California, June 6, 2016. — Reuters pic


Actress Jamie Lee Curtis poses while wearing make-up and costume at the premiere of the movie ‘Warcraft’ in Hollywood, California, June 6, 2016. — Reuters pic


People dressed like knights walk the carpet at the premiere of the movie ‘Warcraft’ in Hollywood, California, June 6, 2016. — Reuters pic

The film, based on Activision Blizzard Inc’s World of Warcraft game, has much going for it to become a blockbuster in the world’s second-largest movie market. Wang operates the country’s biggest cinema chain and the game franchise has a devoted fan base in China, which begins a long weekend today.

China accounts for at least 10 per cent of the 100 million fans of the World of Warcraft game, according to GF Securities.

Nomura Holdings Inc expects Warcraft, directed by David Bowie’s son Duncan Jones, to generate as much as 2 billion yuan in ticket sales in China, which is on pace to overtake the US as the world’s largest movie market as early as 2017. That would make the film China’s second-highest earner this year.

Warcraft opens in the US tomorrow and is expected to have a tepid US$22 million in sales there its first weekend, eventually generating US$45 million total, according to BoxOfficePro.com. Reviews have been poor, with 18 per cent favourable, according to RottenTomatoes.com. The film is also backed by Comcast Corp’s Universal studio, which is distributing the film in North America. — Bloomberg

There are more pix in the article above. I only cut&pasted a few.

'Warcraft' can bomb in U.S. this weekend and still be a blockbuster
By The Wrap JUNE 9, 2016 — 8:24AM


UNIVERSAL
The film "Warcraft" is based on the Blizzard Entertainment video game.

Legendary and Universal Pictures’ “Warcraft” may bomb this weekend in North America, but it’s doing bang-up business overseas.

The video-game movie broke records as it opened Wednesday in China — most notably beating the first-day, non-weekend box office mark held by Disney-Marvel’s “Avengers: Age of Ultron” by nearly $20 million.

As of 10 p.m. local time in Beijing, the movie brought in RMB 302 million (U.S. $46 million). “Age of Ultron” made RMB 185.9 million (U.S. $28.3 million) when it opened in the country.

The studio expects that record-setting gap to increase as midnight approaches.

Directed by Duncan Jones (the late David Bowie‘s son), the film beat IMAX records, too. “Warcraft” made RMB 35 million (U.S. $5.33 million) from the specialty screens, beating the previous record of RMB 31 million (U.S. $4.7 million) set by Universal’s “Furious 7.”

In China, “Warcraft” also broke the IMAX midnight show record (RMB 9.03 million / U.S. $13.8 million) and its pre-sale record (RMB 53.8 million / USD $8.2 million).

Meanwhile, the big-budget video game adaptation is expected to tank at the domestic box office as it opens this weekend.

“Warcraft” was made for a whopping $160 million, not counting marketing costs, and is expected to debut to roughly $25 million in North America, both analysts and Universal predict.

Sizing up to be much more of an international play, the movie had already amassed $75 million abroad in 25 markets before opening in China, where it had been tracking strongly in advance of its holiday opening.

“We can’t just look at it from a North America perspective,” said comScore senior analyst Paul Dergarabedian. “It’s a fairly new phenomenon that the international component is offsetting negativity from an underwhelming North American debut,” he said, citing “Transformers: Age of Extinction” as a prime example.

Unlike the fate predicted for “Warcraft,” the 2014 Paramount blockbuster sequel directed by Michael Bay was considered a success domestically. Still, it made nearly 80 percent of its $1.1 billion from international markets.

Typically, if a movie bombs domestically, it is considered a failure. But examples of disproportionately strong international grosses are multiplying.

“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows,” which had a lackluster North American debut at $35.3 million last weekend, needs to replicate the success the original had overseas.

The previous TMNT reboot barely recouped its production budget on $191.2 million in domestic grosses. Profits from the film depended more on the $302.1 million the movie made abroad.

“All eyes have always been on the North American debut,” said Dergarabedian. “But that’s becoming a misconception.”

[GeneChing]

..Warcraft bested Furious 7.

Box Office: ‘Warcraft’ Feasts on Record $90 Million in First Two Days in China
Dave McNary
Film Reporter
@Variety_DMcNary


COURTESY OF UNIVERSAL
JUNE 9, 2016 | 09:11AM PT
“Warcraft” feasted on a record $90 million in its first two days in China, including the highest Thursday box office of all time in the country, with an estimated $46 million.

The fantasy thriller topped the previous two-day record of $88 million set last year by “Furious 7.”

The Thursday gross also beat the $37 million record set earlier this year by the local film “The Mermaid.” “Warcraft” accounted for 81% of the Chinese box office on Thursday.

The video game adaptation grossed a massive $46 million on its opening day in the Middle Kingdom.

Legendary backed the $160 million film, which needs a lift from foreign audiences. It opens Friday in North America, where it’s projected to pull in $25 million against the openings of “The Conjuring 2” and “Now You See Me 2.”

Universal is distributing the film in most of the world, aside from China, where China Film Group and Huaxia are handling the rollout. “Warcraft” has been screening in more than two dozen foreign territories for two weeks and grossed more than $75 million.

Legendary was acquired earlier this year by Chinese conglomerate, Dalian Wanda. The film was directed by Duncan Jones (“Moon”) and stars Travis Fimmel, Paula Patton, and Ben Foster.

[GeneChing]

World of ‘Warcraft’: Will this type of game-changing film render American audiences irrelevant?
By Michael Cavna June 13 at 8:00 AM


Blurred battle lines: Commander Anduin Lothar (Travis Fimmel) fights his attraction to half-orc Garona (Paula Patton) in “Warcraft.” (Legendary Pictures/Universal Pictures 2016)

SORRY, America, but “Warcraft” is just not that into you.

Oh, it might seem that it was the North American market that largely spurned the domestic debut of the film based on the popular online game — “Warcraft” opened to only $24.4 million in the States and Canada over the weekend — but the movie wasn’t particularly trying to woo Western audiences, anyway.

No, “Warcraft” and its $160 million production budget was primarily banking on winning the affections of the Asian markets, where the flick based on the massively multiplayer online role-playing game “World of Warcraft” has succeeded, well, massively.

The film has set multiple box-office records in China — where reportedly at least one of out of every three “World of Warcraft” subscribers resides — and has already grossed more than a quarter-billion dollars overseas.

In other words: More than three decades after David Bowie sang of Western imperialism and domination (right down to the lyric “I’ll give you television”) in the hit “China Girl,” his son — “Warcraft” director Duncan Jones — is profiting from a China-centric entertainment business model that could have longer reverberations in Hollywood.

Which prompts the question: Has a blockbuster film starring Western talent ever had such little reliance on making it in America?

Foreign markets, of course, have especially buoyed and even rescued some Hollywood films in recent years. 2013’s “The Wolverine”‘ grossed nearly 70 percent of its $415 million take overseas; “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” (2011) relied on non-domestic audiences for more than 75 percent of its billion-dollar take; and last year’s “Terminator: Genisys” was financially saved by drawing nearly 80 percent of its $441 million total from foreign screens.

Now, “Warcraft” takes it it to the next level.


Orc chieftain Durotan (Toby Kebbell) leads the Frostwolf Clan in “Warcraft.” (Legendary Pictures/Universal Pictures/ILM 2016)

The Universal Pictures/Legendary Pictures film has grossed $286.1 million so far, according to BoxOfficeMojo.com, and a whopping 91.5 percent of that is from overseas audiences. And more than half that — about $156 million — is from its first five days in China.

“Warcraft” — which stars Travis Fimmel, Paula Patton, Ben Foster and Dominic Cooper — reached $135 million faster than any international film ever in the Chinese market, reports Variety, topping the record of “Furious 7″ (which ultimately pulled in more than three-fourths of its $1.5 billion total gross overseas). The film also opened as the top movie in 45 of 51 foreign markets.

And all along for “Warcraft,” China was the make-or-break market.

Consider that China is fertile ground for such movies, based on the high popularity there of such battle/arena online games as Blizzard Entertainment’s “World of Warcraft.” (China even has a giant, unauthorized $48 million “World of Warcraft” theme park.)

Add to that the fact that the Chinese movie market is growing so quickly — it might well pass the North American market by the end of next year. In February, China’s monthly gross reportedly cracked $1 billion for the first time — more than 20 percent higher than the domestic market that month.

And then there is the showdown with Disney, which has been such a commercial superpower within China (and which this week is scheduled to open the $5.5 billion Shanghai Disneyland theme park and resort).

Universal is distributing “Warcraft” in much of the world, but the film was also released by Legendary Pictures, which, in a deal announced in January, was acquired by the Chinese conglomerate/real-estate giant the Dalian Wanda Group — one of the world’s largest cinema-chain operators, as well as a Disney rival there.

“Warcraft” reportedly opened on 70 percent of all screens in China, which, according to Deadline Hollywood, is the widest film release ever there.

So although “The Conjuring 2″ won the domestic weekend with a $40.4 million debut, according to studio estimates, and “Now You See Me 2″ was third with a $23 million opening, most all industry eyes are on “Warcraft” and how it levels up in China.

Because, as that massive box-office game goes, so might the future of potential Hollywood video-game movies that are trying to capture American eyes only secondarily.

Let the next game begin.

Jackie Chan Is Very Happy That Warcraft is Making a Lot of Money in China
By Greg Cwik


Jackie Chan attends New York Asian Film Festival Star Asia Lifetime Achievement Award Ceremony at Walter Reade Theater on June 10, 2013 in New York City.
Photo: Ben Gabbe/Getty Images

The unbreakable Jackie Chan is ecstatic about Duncan Jones’s Warcraft. While speaking at the kickoff event for his namesake Jackie Chan Action Movie Week program at the Shanghai International Film Festival, the Hong Kong movie legend discussed the seismic change in the global film market, which was once dominated by the United States, and how Warcraft's success in China is frightening Americans. "Warcraft made 600 million RMB ($91 million) in two days — this has scared the Americans,” Chan said. “If we can make a film that earns 10 billion ($1.5 billion), then people from all over the world who study film will learn Chinese, instead of us learning English.”
The movie ended up with $145 million in China in just four days; along with its $10.7 million domestic opening, it’s made $276.9 million internationally. Stephen Chow’s comedy-fantasy The Mermaid, which grossed $528.6 million earlier this year, remains the highest-grossing film in China. Warcraft was partially produced by Legendary Entertainment, which was bought by Chinese conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group for $3.5 billion in January.

Is this the turning point? The U.S. film pundits are confused.

[GeneChing]

Legendary Sells 'Warcraft' China Online Rights for Record Sum
10:40 PM PDT 6/14/2016 by Abid Rahman and Patrick Brzeski


'Warcraft'
image.net

Streamer PPTV has secured the exclusive online VOD rights to the video game adaptation.

Warcraft continues to break records in China.

After smashing a number of box office marks upon debut, Warcraft's online streaming rights for the China market have sold for a record sum for a foreign title, THR has confirmed.

China's PPTV has secured the exclusive rights to Legendary Entertainment's long in the works adaptation of the video game phenomenon. Legendary confirmed the fee was a record but declined to reveal figures. Variety first reported the news.

Despite its tepid U.S. box office and mixed reviews, Warcraft has taken on event movie status in China where it opened with a record shattering $156 million in just five days.

Warcraft has also made an impression in other foreign markets such as Germany and Russia and its global total stood at $286.1 million through Sunday. Costing $160 million to make, Warcraft needs to earn $450 million or more to break even.

Hold the phone, if it cost $160M, why must it earn $450M+ to break even?

[GeneChing]

Haven't seen it yet. Maybe I should.

Warcraft Becomes Most Successful Video Game Movie Ever
By Brad Jones | 4 hours ago

Despite opening to a mediocre response in the United States, strong performances overseas have allowed Warcraft to become the highest grossing video game movie of all time.

When the Warcraft movie was first being discussed, fans and film pundits alike had plenty of reservations about whether the finished product would find its audience. Now, there’s word that the project has become the highest grossing video game adaptation ever — even despite a very disappointing box office return domestically.

With its global haul passing $377 million according to a report from Box Office Mojo, Warcraft has broken the record of $336 million set by Prince of Persia in 2010. Amazingly, just $37 million of that amount comes from ticket sales in the United States.

Warcraft opened in the U.S. last week, but could only muster up a total take of $24 million over the course of its first few days in cinemas. This figure plummeted to $6 million in its second week, an enormous drop of about 73% — not a good sign, considering the budget for the film was around $160 million.

However, the film is being rescued by strong international response, which could still preserve plans for Warcraft to launch a movie franchise. More than $200 million of its total gross has come from ticket sales in China, which makes up more than half of its total return so far.



Given the scale of the production, Warcraft was always intended to lay the foundation for sequels. However, the fact that the movie is only really seeing success outside of the U.S. will certainly change the discussion surrounding plans for a follow-up.

This isn’t to say that the current cast will be exchanged for Chinese actors, or that the overarching narrative will be tweaked to suit the country’s tastes — but it might lead to the film’s production being transplanted to Asia. There would perhaps be promotional advantages to the sequel being shot on Chinese soil.

Of course, this is assuming that the film will receive a sequel simply because it’s now the most successful video game adaptation. However, the Prince of Persia movie that previously held that title never saw a follow-up — even if its star Jake Gyllenhaal did just book a lead role in another project based on an Ubisoft property.

For all its faults, there is plenty to praise about the way Duncan Jones and his crew set out to bring Warcraft to the silver screen. It’s a shame that audiences in the U.S. don’t see to have much interest in the film — but its popularity elsewhere might give the franchise a chance to blossom.

Warcraft is now showing in cinemas worldwide.

Source: Box Office Mojo

[GeneChing]

...the thought did occur to me for a fleeing moment, but that doesn't count unless I had posted it.

China Box Office: ‘Warcraft’ Ticket Sales Come Under Scrutiny
By Jonathan Papish|June 20th, 2016|Featured Stories, Home Page Slider

82 of top 100 grossing cinemas Saturday belonged to Wanda
Wanda dismissed creative accounting allegations
Finding Nemo sequel debut grossed $18.2M, Pixar’s best yet


Screenings on Warcraft’s second weekend fell nearly silent after record debut (Courtesy Weibo)

Last weekend, the weekend of Friday June 10, Legendary’s Warcraft — bolstered by an enormous contingent of Chinese fans of the “World of Warcraft” online video game — scored the country’s biggest five-day opening of all-time with $156 million in ticket sales. Meanwhile, the video game adaptation crashed and burned upon arrival in North America, taking in just $24.2 million from a 3-day debut.

This weekend, starting Friday June 17, Disney/Pixar’s Finding Dory cruised to $136.2 million in North America, the biggest opening ever for an animated film. However, in China, where Pixar has failed to gain a foothold despite other Disney successes, moviegoers once again gave the animation studio a cold reception. The Finding Nemo sequel earned just RMB 118.6 million ($18.2 million).

Still, ‘Dory’’s modest debut is the biggest-ever opening for a Pixar title in China and it should overtake sequel Monsters University ($33.9 million) to become Pixar’s highest-grossing film in the territory.

Warcraft meanwhile earned its second straight weekend victory with RMB 159 million ($24.2 million), and now has grossed RMB 1.3464 billion ($205.0 million) in 12 days of release.

As expected, ticket sales for Warcraft have fallen precipitously after its record debut. This weekend’s gross was a steep 63% below its three-day $65 million total the weekend of June 10, and a killer 85% slide from its five-day opening haul.

Compounding issues for Wanda, the Chinese production/distribution/exhibition behemoth that purchased Legendary in February for $3.5 billion dollars and the company that stands to gain the most from Warcraft’s success, were claims of box office fraud that began surfacing on Chinese social media late Sunday night.

Nationwide box office data showed 82 of the top 100 grossing cinemas on Saturday belonged to Wanda, far above the usual 40 that usually constitute the list.

One theater in the city of Foshan, in southern Guangdong Province, saw ticket sales increase 406% from Friday, and somehow a Wanda cineplex in the city of flood-stricken Liuzhou in Guangxi Province had an average of 130 moviegoers per screening on Saturday; Warcraft’s highest average attendance was 93 during its midnight screenings. Something wasn’t adding up.

Dalian Wanda released a statement on Monday explaining that the increased cinema attendance was tied to a nationwide promotional activity that brought in record numbers of consumers to its shopping malls and that the box office spike wasn’t due to any nefarious accounting manipulation.

Still, the statement did little to quell speculation among industry observers dubious of Wanda’s power in every link of the Chinese film industry supply chain.

[GeneChing]

WARCRAFT Beer For Sale In China
20 Hours Ago By Mick Joest



China cannot get enough Warcraft. The film has become the country's highest-grossing film of all time and has spurred an illegally licensed spin-off, and now an officially licensed beer. Gameinformer tells us that in conjunction with the movie, Chinese citizens can purchase a special edition Tsingtao Lager that features Lothar and Durotan tall boys and a pendant.



If you're looking to snag yourself a couple cans you can find some on eBay by clicking here.

According to googtrans, the Chinese word for Warcraft is Móshòu (魔兽).

[GeneChing]

I'm lying. I love to say "I told ya so."

Hollywood’s Latest Stars Hail From China
Big marketing efforts from Chinese partners give box-office edge to ‘Warcraft,’ other films
“Warcraft” is now the highest-grossing video game film of all time. Watch what happens when China is fully behind a Hollywood film. Photo: AP
Updated June 28, 2016 4:57 a.m. ET

BEIJING—It was hard to avoid “Warcraft” in China in recent weeks.

Bus stops in the country’s big cities and shelves in its grocery stores advertised the film based on the “Warcraft” videogame franchise. Warrior images popped up on popular ride-hailing apps and web browsers. A 6-meter-high “Doomhammer” weapon was erected in Beijing’s upscale Sanlitun shopping district.

The movie—produced by Legendary Entertainment, the Hollywood studio purchased by Chinese conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group Co. this year—has racked up more than $210 million from Chinese moviegoers so far. This is about five times its U.S. box-office tally, hammering home the audience numbers that a Hollywood movie can unlock in China with the help of the right Chinese partner.

Another Chinese-backed Hollywood movie, the Lionsgate comedy “Now You See Me 2,” took in about $43 million in its first weekend after opening Friday, compared with $22.4 million in its opening weekend in the U.S. earlier in June. The movie, backed by Hunan TV & Broadcast Intermediary Co., set an opening record for a Lionsgate title in China.

At a time of ramped-up competition in China’s movie sector, whose box office is set to overtake its U.S. counterpart next year, and with Chinese regulators limiting the number of foreign movies and blocking them from opening during peak periods, Hollywood studios are increasingly looking for an edge in China.

“Having Chinese partners on board brings the level of support to a Hollywood film that those without cannot compete with,” said Fu Yalong, research director of EntGroup, a film data company based in Beijing.

For “Warcraft,” almost everything about how it was marketed was a study in contrast with the usual obstacles Hollywood films face in China.

“Warcraft” was allowed to open at an opportune time, right after national college-entrance exams and during the three-day Dragon Boat Festival. That made it a prime holiday destination for a generation of videogamers—often with their dates.

Wanda helped make sure that anyone who wanted to see the movie could. Its theater chain, China’s biggest, offered nearly 80% of its scheduling slots to “Warcraft” on its opening day, and more than 70% later that weekend.

Other chains in which Wanda has interests also overwhelmingly showed “Warcraft” on its screens.

Lin Hao drove across Beijing to take a look at the Doomhammer, a legendary weapon used by orc-warrior leaders. For the 30-year-old engineer, “Warcraft” struck a nostalgic note, evoking days and nights of “fighting for the horde” in dorm rooms.

“I like special effects and reminiscing about the game,” said Mr. Lin, who took his wife, a nongamer, to watch the movie.

When “Warcraft” started flagging at the box office in its second weekend—dropping nearly 63% compared with its opening weekend—Wanda offered free or discounted movie tickets at its theaters. The campaign filled 1.71 million seats in its theaters over three days, Wanda said.

State regulators usually give Hollywood studios only about a month’s notice when they set a movie’s release date, leaving little time for marketing campaigns. In the case of “Warcraft,” Legendary said 26 well-established brands committed to creating commercial campaigns before the release date was set, from Ping An Insurance to dairy giant Mengniu.

A person familiar with the matter said such sponsors contributed about $200 million in brand support, a sizable lever for Legendary, whose typical marketing budget is about $6 million or $7 million a movie, the person said.

Hunan TV, which has co-financed a series of films with Lionsgate, has already promoted “Now You See Me 2” for months, running footage of the film’s lead characters during a satellite-television Lunar New Year extravaganza in February, one of the country’s most-watched shows.

With about 80% of movie tickets bought online in China, the backing of one of China’s internet giants represents something of a Holy Grail for Hollywood studios.



Alibaba Pictures Group Ltd., the film arm of Alibaba Group Holding, an investor in Paramount’s comic-book adaptation “Teenage Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows,” is pushing ads for the movie across Alibaba’s network, including ticketing platforms, the Taobao online store and the Weibo social-media platform.

Leveraging its reach, Alibaba is using big data from its ticketing platform and Taobao to send digital discount codes to a targeted audience and is working with more than 100 brands, in areas such as food delivery, popcorn and supermarkets, to use images from the “Turtles” in ads across China’s cities.

Tencent Holding Ltd., an investor in “Warcraft,” promoted it on its social-media platforms QQ and WeChat, each with hundreds of millions of active users, and ran ads with its exclusively streamed videos of National Basketball Association championship games to tens of millions.

Legendary has yet to decide whether there will be a sequel to “Warcraft,” but is now working on sequels to the sci-fi film “Pacific Rim,” which grossed more in China than stateside, and the monster film “Godzilla.” The company said it aims to develop these two sequels as China-U.S. co-productions.

For the Chinese partners, besides sharing in the box office, there are other advantages to the Hollywood ties.

“Working with the best foreign production companies will help us to bring our own Chinese content to the outside world in the future,” said Zhou Shixing, chief content officer of Hunan TV.

—Lilian Lin

[GeneChing]

Warcraft Box Office Breakdown: Success or Failure?
By Zak Wojnar 07.09.20166



Critically and commercially, reactions to Duncan Jones’ Warcraft have been mixed. On review aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes, only 29% of critics gave the film a positive score, though general moviegoers were more receptive and the film’s Audience Score sits at a far more respectable 79%. Audiences are generally more forgiving than critics, especially of cult franchise fare, and the Warcraft game series has a dedicated fanbase numbering in the millions.

At the domestic (United States and Canada) box office, this would-be blockbuster, budgeted at a reported $160 million, could muster only $46 million in ticket sales as of the time of writing, and is poised to close below $50 million – not a successful local run, by any stretch of the imagination.

Many are currently championing the importance of the international box office and its ability to turn domestic under-performers into global hits… But is that theory really true? Can countries like China, Russia, South Korea, and other growing markets genuinely turn a a box office disaster into a win, the way people are claiming China is reversing Warcraft‘s fortunes for Universal? Is the film’s current global box office haul of $422 million enough for us to expect Warcraft 2 somewhere down the line?

REPORTED BUDGET VS REALITY



Duncan Jones’ swords and sorcery epic was an outright bomb at the domestic box office. Its $45 million haul is about half of legendary misfire The Lone Ranger, and also significantly less than other duds like Battleship, John Carter, and Fantastic Four. However, of these films the highest-grossing one (Battleship) finished its run with $303 million worldwide, a far cry from Warcraft‘s $422 million and counting.

In China – the film’s largest market by an extremely wide margin, and the second-biggest film market in the world after the United States – Warcraft grossed a stunning $220 million, nearly five times as much as it made in the U.S. To some, that number seems like enough to call the film a hit, close the book and move on. After all, if the global box office of a film is bigger than its reported budget, then it is a success, right?

Not so; in fact, if that were the case, then each of the box office bombs mentioned above would all be well on their way to being massive hit franchises. The truth is, it takes a lot of money for a film to break even, and budgets are often much larger than we are told, due to marketing. It costs money to put up billboards promoting a movie, to put commercials on television, to put those advertisements on websites, and to have lavish premieres and promotional events. This added costs can amount to hundreds of millions of dollars, pushing profitability even further out of reach.

MONEY MADE OVER HERE VS MONEY MADE OVER THERE



Budgets are higher than ever, and astronomical marketing budgets are following suit, but before a studio can attempt to reap profits from the film, they must use a middle-man to get their movie out there to be consumed by the masses. This middleman is your local movie theater: AMC, Regal, Alamo Drafthouse, etc. In the United States, it is generally accepted that film studios and movie houses split ticket sales more-or-less evenly. In other countries, particularly China, it is a different story.

In China’s state-run system, Hollywood movie studios may only see a maximum of 25% of a film’s gross. What this means is that every dollar a movie earns in China is worth only half the amount of a dollar earned in America. If Universal takes home a quarter of Warcraft‘s Chinese gross, then that’s only $55 million. Not a number to scoff at by any means, but certainly not a blockbuster take-home, and definitely not enough to justify the oft-repeated claim that the film is a runaway hit and that a deluge of sequels is inevitable.

Between the larger-than-reported budgets and the fact that only about half of a film’s box office returns go to the studio (and about 40% of international grosses, plus only 25% from China), big-budget blockbusters really need to win big in order to break even. During the Great Sony Hacker Attack of 2014, leaked e-mails reported that Men in Black 3 would have to gross well over $600 million worldwide for Sony to turn a profit. Ultimately, the film grossed $624 million, so it could probably be said that it broke even, if just barely.

THE GRAVEYARD OF OSTENSIBLE HITS



To those who may think that we’re downplaying the importance of the global box office, and China in particular, look no further than last year’s failed summer blockbuster, Terminator Genisys. Its budget was $150 million, comparable to Warcraft, and its domestic performance was underwhelming, but the film made headlines by breaking out in China, where it made $113 million. All told, Terminator 5‘s global total stood at a healthy $440 million: stronger than Warcraft, and with more of that money coming from countries where the studio (in that case, Paramount Pictures) will see a greater percentage of the gross.

Like Warcraft now, Terminator Genisys was touted as proving the death of the importance of domestic ticket sales when it came to building franchises. Genisys was planned and marketed to be the first in a new trilogy of films for the series, but in January 2016 further Terminator sequels were quietly removed from the schedule after it was reported that the film had failed to break even at the box office.

The annals of box office history are filled with would-be franchise-fare that delivered a middling performance in the United States, seemed to save face with their global performance, but then ultimately failed to spawn sequels. On the other hand, if a film manages to break out domestically, it doesn’t necessarily need overseas support. 2009’s Star Trek reboot set the American box office on fire to the tune of $257 million. However, as Star Trek has never actually been a particularly valuable product globally, the film could only bring in $127 million overseas, for a worldwide total of “just” $385 million. But the fact that most of that money came from the U.S., where it didn’t have to travel far to reach Paramount’s coffers, led to the production of 2013’s Star Trek Into Darkness, and this month’s highly anticipated Star Trek Beyond.

Pacific Rim was one of 2013’s most talked-about movies. With a reported production budget of $190 million, the film barely cracked $100 million domestically but gained plenty of ground overseas, closing with $411 million worldwide – $111 million of that total coming from China. Sequel plans were touch-and-go for a while, and Pacific Rim 2‘s current momentum (and official 2018 release date) may have more to do with China’s Wanda Group acquiring Pacific Rim backer Legendary Pictures than anything else. The sequel to Edge of Tomorrow is basically in the same boat that Pacific Rim 2 was in before the Wanda Group purchase, for similar reasons. We, the fans, will just have to wait and see what happens there.

continued next post