I KNEW the movie would flop

[Osmeric]

So the movie is at this point pretty much done, what is the final verdict

It has ended up doing worse than last summer's Terminator movie, which cost less to make and earned more in the US.

The plans for two sequels to that movie have been abandoned, btw.

[Plehnard]

The plans for two sequels to that movie have been abandoned, btw.

Mind to give us your source?

Edit.
Ah you meant Terminator and not Warcraft with that.

[Jshadowhunter]

It only flopped in the USA because people there somehow blindly believe what critics have to say, regardless of the well known fact, that even critics opinion is subjective. In the end, movie can have it's flaws and still be very enjoyable. You should have your own mind and your own opinion.

That and/or maybe the fact that marketing for the movie in US is NON-EXISTENT.
Didn't you see any big promotional material anywhere out in the open world? Like how they did with any big even movies so far? I mean even online, only thing US marketing did was post some crappy and what they tought was "witty" pictures with fancy words on Twitter, that's all!

So either there was no budget for marketing on this movie whatsoever, or if there was, the markating teams used it for crack.

[Aqueous]

It flopped because it was badly written and badly acted. So many things here were just poor and non-fans were just totally lost in my experience. Acting in particular was cringeworthy at so many points, the fact that CGI characters that were voice acted were more compelling than actual live human actors says a lot.

We're supposed to care about the humans yet we get no opportunity to identify with them. We know virtually nothing of the other Alliance races - the war room negotiations would've been the perfect time but instead it lasts 15 seconds with "We're not coming back." from one of the members. Great.

Honestly, I won't go into details since I'd need to write an essay but unless you leave your brain out to lunch during this movie it was awful. Being in the middle of watching Game of Thrones season 6 definitely made things even worse, to be fair.

[Relapses]

That and/or maybe the fact that marketing for the movie in US is NON-EXISTENT.
Didn't you see any big promotional material anywhere out in the open world? Like how they did with any big even movies so far? I mean even online, only thing US marketing did was post some crappy and what they tought was "witty" pictures with fancy words on Twitter, that's all!

So either there was no budget for marketing on this movie whatsoever, or if there was, the markating teams used it for crack.

The movie's marketing budget was likely spent in China where the movie performed well. Legendary likely had focus groups in the US and realized that no amount of marketing could have made the movie a success since the target audience was pretty niche to begin with and the average US moviegoer already has a bad taste in their mouths from the plethora of shitty video game adaptations Hollywood has tried to make quick cash from. China (and the East in general), however, has a culture which is very receptive to gaming (they frequently fill entire Olympic arenas with spectators for games like League of Legends) and WoW was a huge staple for many people in the country so it made sense to focus the advertising there. This strategy turned out to be mostly successful as Warcraft became one of the top grossing films in China and if we do ever see sequels it will assuredly be because of this.

[Pann]

The movie's marketing budget was likely spent in China where the movie performed well. Legendary likely had focus groups in the US and realized that no amount of marketing could have made the movie a success since the target audience was pretty niche to begin with and the average US moviegoer already has a bad taste in their mouths from the plethora of shitty video game adaptations Hollywood has tried to make quick cash from. China (and the East in general), however, has a culture which is very receptive to gaming (they frequently fill entire Olympic arenas with spectators for games like League of Legends) and WoW was a huge staple for many people in the country so it made sense to focus the advertising there. This strategy turned out to be mostly successful as Warcraft became one of the top grossing films in China and if we do ever see sequels it will assuredly be because of this.

I think they spent a pretty penny on advertising in the UK. In the run up to its launch if you watched an hour of TV you were guaranteed to see at least one ad for it as well as bill boards and ads on the side of buses, etc.

[Osmeric]

I think they spent a pretty penny on advertising in the UK. In the run up to its launch if you watched an hour of TV you were guaranteed to see at least one ad for it as well as bill boards and ads on the side of buses, etc.

And box office in the UK was down 80% in the second weekend.

[Hellfury]

The movie's marketing budget was likely spent in China where the movie performed well. Legendary likely had focus groups in the US and realized that no amount of marketing could have made the movie a success since the target audience was pretty niche to begin with and the average US moviegoer already has a bad taste in their mouths from the plethora of shitty video game adaptations Hollywood has tried to make quick cash from. China (and the East in general), however, has a culture which is very receptive to gaming (they frequently fill entire Olympic arenas with spectators for games like League of Legends) and WoW was a huge staple for many people in the country so it made sense to focus the advertising there. This strategy turned out to be mostly successful as Warcraft became one of the top grossing films in China and if we do ever see sequels it will assuredly be because of this.

"real life" adds and internet adds were everywhere.

[Pann]

And box office in the UK was down 80% in the second weekend.

Where I live the advertising run was longer than the run in the cinema.

[Tackhisis]

No amount of advertizement can save bad game movie franchises. Some more obscure like "Resident Evil" or "Silent Hill" can be sold, but blatant ones like "Doom", "Lara Croft", "Warcraft", or "Assassin's Creed" are too infamous and too niche to instigate interest. Is there any amount of it to make me wanting to watch AC, for example, providing I've never played it? Even the title is off-putting. The only solution for the game movie curse is moving from the game brand; but that's not what the IP holders want.

[Jshadowhunter]

No amount of advertizement can save bad movie franchises. Some more obscure like "Resident Evil" or "Silent Hill" can be sold, but blatant ones like "Doom", "Lara Croft", "Warcraft", or "Assassin's Creed" are too infamous and too niche to instigate interest. Is there any amount of it to make me wanting to watch AC, for example, providing I've never played it? Even the title is off-putting. The only solution for the game movie curse is moving from the game brand; but that's not what the IP holders want.

Go back to the hole from whence you've crawled out, troll. I can understand you're hungry because the movie thread is drying, but we have no need of you here.

[Plehnard]

The movie's marketing budget was likely spent in China where the movie performed well. Legendary likely had focus groups in the US and realized that no amount of marketing could have made the movie a success since the target audience was pretty niche to begin with and the average US moviegoer already has a bad taste in their mouths from the plethora of shitty video game adaptations Hollywood has tried to make quick cash from. China (and the East in general), however, has a culture which is very receptive to gaming (they frequently fill entire Olympic arenas with spectators for games like League of Legends) and WoW was a huge staple for many people in the country so it made sense to focus the advertising there. This strategy turned out to be mostly successful as Warcraft became one of the top grossing films in China and if we do ever see sequels it will assuredly be because of this.

You're most likely wrong on this. Advertising in China is extremely cheap in the first hand and most of the advertising for Warcraft was made with sponsorships and thru the china film foundation. They likely spend less than 10m on the Chinese market.

[Gadzooks]

That and/or maybe the fact that marketing for the movie in US is NON-EXISTENT.
Didn't you see any big promotional material anywhere out in the open world? Like how they did with any big even movies so far? I mean even online, only thing US marketing did was post some crappy and what they tought was "witty" pictures with fancy words on Twitter, that's all!

So either there was no budget for marketing on this movie whatsoever, or if there was, the markating teams used it for crack.

Yeah, there was actually quite a bit of advertising done for the movie, and several trailers released, in theaters and on TV. They took over IMDB for a while, too, which isn't cheap, but gets a LOT of eyeballs, and interviews and ads were all over the gaming industry online.

These words, "non existant", I do not think they mean what you think they do.

[mattydraenor]

The movie was okay, I feel if it was over 2 parts and expanded on the story a little more it would of been better. None Warcraft fans had no idea what was going on. Draenor was not spoke about, it mentioned that they needed to leave but it did not show the state of the planet or what they were escaping from. The background of the demonic corruption was pretty much left out too.

[Gadzooks]

The movie's marketing budget was likely spent in China where the movie performed well.

Marketing isn't one big bucket of money that's spent worldwide - the US marketing budget came from Legendary and Universal, who released it in the US (marketing is generally paid for by the distributor). In China, they had different financial backers and the movie was distributed by the Chinese Film Group Corporation (the government). The entire Chinese marketing budget came from those sources, and they spent a LOT there.

What was spent in China had literally nothing to do with the marketing budgets elsewhere.

https://www.inverse.com/article/1671...anted-it-to-be

[quras]

Marketing isn't one big bucket of money that's spent worldwide - the US marketing budget came from Legendary and Universal, who released it in the US (marketing is generally paid for by the distributor). In China, they had different financial backers and the movie was distributed by the Chinese Film Group Corporation (the government). The entire Chinese marketing budget came from those sources, and they spent a LOT there.

What was spent in China had literally nothing to do with the marketing budgets elsewhere.

https://www.inverse.com/article/1671...anted-it-to-be

This is another interesting article on just what China did to make sure warcraft did better than anywhere else. While China may not have as high a cost for marketing as say America. You can bet they spent more than average. China went above and beyond when it came to marketing and that doesn't come cheap by any standard.

http://variety.com/2016/film/asia/te...-s-1201794300/

It flopped because it was badly written and badly acted. So many things here were just poor and non-fans were just totally lost in my experience. Acting in particular was cringeworthy at so many points, the fact that CGI characters that were voice acted were more compelling than actual live human actors says a lot.

We're supposed to care about the humans yet we get no opportunity to identify with them. We know virtually nothing of the other Alliance races - the war room negotiations would've been the perfect time but instead it lasts 15 seconds with "We're not coming back." from one of the members. Great.

Honestly, I won't go into details since I'd need to write an essay but unless you leave your brain out to lunch during this movie it was awful. Being in the middle of watching Game of Thrones season 6 definitely made things even worse, to be fair.

You'll get no argument from me on that. After watching the movie and remember they said it would be a 50/50 movie, the end product wasn't that at all. This was an orc movie and everything not orcs was very given less than "B" rate treatment. It was just a disappointment in the end.

[PixelFox]

It turns out that that heavy ticket pre-orders and demand in China might have been partly artificial...

http://en.people.cn/business/n3/2016...8-9091625.html

Industry sources said a few blockbuster Chinese films, such as Lost in Hong Kong and Monster Hunt, have been the subject of allegedly inflated reported box office sales.
The phenomenon is a practice in the industry, where many film producers will reserve some costs for box office allowances.
Moviegoers can usually buy film tickets at a discount, and producers will subsidize the remainder of the full price, which can be regarded as a promotional activity. However, if there is no real demand to see the film but producers buy the tickets in advance, this is considered illegal.
Of last year's 44 billion yuan reported box office, about 3 billion yuan to 5 billion yuan came from such allowances.
Industry sources said the illusion of a high box office actually harms China's film industry and will lead to market bubbles and disorders.

[quras]

It turns out that that heavy ticket pre-orders and demand in China might have been partly artificial...

http://en.people.cn/business/n3/2016...8-9091625.html

In a related article on that very same subject. You can read this:

http://chinafilminsider.com/china-bo...come-scrutiny/

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.

If you look up pictures around that time of Liuzhou in Guangxi Province that the article talks about. It does bring into questions how they saw such an increase in ticket sales when you compare the area to the flooding and destruction they were hit with. It makes you question if there wasn't some major padding going on.

[Zaqwert]

It only flopped in the USA because people there somehow blindly believe what critics have to say, regardless of the well known fact, that even critics opinion is subjective.

Completely and totally false in a provable way:

Many blockbuster movies have horrible reviews and are still wildly successful at the box office.

Likewise many great reviewed films put up modest to poor box office numbers.

Movie reviews only have a marginal affect on how well a movie does at the box office.

[apples]

Completely and totally false in a provable way:

Many blockbuster movies have horrible reviews and are still wildly successful at the box office.

Likewise many great reviewed films put up modest to poor box office numbers.

Movie reviews only have a marginal affect on how well a movie does at the box office.

unless youre a ....

video game movie