Before The Super Mario Bros. Movie came along and hoovered up over a billion dollars like it was nobody’s business, a strange pattern was emerging when it came to earning the status of the highest-grossing video game adaptation in the history of cinema, with Warcraft the second to seize an oxymoronic accolade.
Disney’s Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time snatched the record away from Lara Croft: Tomb Raider after earning $336 million globally, and yet it still technically bombed due to its massive $200 million budget and associated marketing coasts. Nonetheless, Jake Gyllenhaal’s Dastan held onto the record for six years until Duncan Jones ventured to Azeroth, only for the exact same thing to happen.
Thanks largely to a lucrative run in China, Warcraft toppled The Sands of Time to end up as the top-earning console-to-screen blockbuster of all-time, but Universal still made a loss of around $30-40 million by the time it left multiplexes and migrated to home video.
There was definitely potential in the franchise that was ultimately killed at the first hurdle, but tepid reviews and an overriding disinterest from the general public ensured it would exist as a one-and-done effort only. It still has plenty of supporters, though, many of whom appear to be revisiting it once again on streaming.
Per FlixPatrol, Warcraft has plunged headlong back into the battle for streaming supremacy as one of the most-watched features on Prime Video’s worldwide rankings, although it’s very much a case of “what could have been,” at least until the reboot you could likely stake your house on materializes eventually.