5) Warcraft: The Beginning (June 10, 2016)
Warcraft is hitting theaters in just a few weeks, and if it’s successful, it could become a major franchise. That’s a big if, but director Duncan Jones has said that he hopes to make a trilogy of films based on Blizzard’s iconic fantasy property.
“Peter Jackson did a magnificent job of ‘setting the table’ for Tolkien’s universe with his first Lord Of The Rings film,” Jones said. “I know that my job in this first film is to establish certain characters, places and culture while telling a story that a broad audience can be excited by. Hopefully, if I have done my job right, people will want to know and see more! There is certainly plenty more to tell… I would love to be part of that process of expanding on the lore that makes up Warcraft, but it will depend on what you, the audience, think of our first film.”
There have already been a few trailers for Warcraft, and it certainly looks visually-dazzling, if a bit too heavily-focused on computer-generated effects. Those effects were accomplished by Industrial Light & Magic, the company behind the Star Wars films, so at the very least we should expect an enjoyable IMAX 3D experience. What’s unclear is if audiences will be interested.
Marketing Warcraft to gamers will not be enough; if every single World of Warcraft subscriber bought a ticket to the movie, it would only gross about $47 million, which would be a disastrous box office take. Warcraft must appeal to the average person who is not at all familiar with the MMORPG, but with such a rich lore and with trailers so jam-packed with somewhat-confusing material, it remains to be seen how far the appeal goes.