12 Movies In 2016 That Should Have Flopped (But Didn't)
11. Warcraft
Don’t get us wrong: Warcraft was by no means a critical success. Apart from a few positive things to say about the visual talents of director Duncan Jones, critics almost universally panned the film. Funnily enough though, it fared a hell of a lot better than it was expected to commercially, amassing a $433.5 million global profit, more than half of which came from not the domestic market but China.
Admittedly, that box office gross isn’t as impressive as first glances might suggest. With a production budget of $160 million plus marketing costs, Warcraft is expected to make a loss of around $15 million. That’s not a huge loss compared to some of cinema history’s more gigantic flops and potentially lucrative digital rights and merchandising deals in China could soften the initial financial blow considerably.
Still though, in a genre known for some godawful films (Super Mari Bros. or Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, anyone?), Warcraft has become the highest grossing video game to movie adaptation of all time. Just goes to show the power of having the world’s most populated country on your side.