"Warcraft" announced that China Capital has contributed significantly to Blizzard or winning back the market initiative

China's capital has contributed greatly to the fact that "Warcraft" can stir up a whirlwind of emotions in China this time. Wanda, Huayi, and Tencent, three film and television companies have respectively become investors or producers of the movie "Warcraft" in different ways. Huayi and Tencent Pictures invested in the project separately and announced that they would participate in the global box office share. This year, Wanda announced that it would acquire Legendary Pictures, the producer of "Warcraft", for US$3.5 billion, making it the China financial owner behind the film.

Original title: The box office of "Warcraft" supported by 10 million China fans may exceed 2 billion yuan? What have the capital parties behind them Wanda, Huayi and Tencent earned?

After the box office slump in May, all eyes were on the early morning release of "Warcraft". This film, full of magic, epic and legendary, has created miracles at the box office at least. As of 18:00 today,"Warcraft", which has not yet been officially released, has grossed 170 million yuan in box office, and the pre-sale box office is still rising over time.

Gamers of "Warcraft" waiting to watch the premiere at midnight are already rubbing their fists. It is this huge group that supports the pre-sale box office of "Warcraft" of over 100 million yuan."Warcraft" has left a deep impression on this young group with the post-80s as the main body. "I will also leave early to play a game when I go to school at noon." A "Warcraft" fan said that he would definitely go to watch the movie now that it is released.

At least ten players told reporters that the reason for going to watch this film was purely based on "faith" and that they didn't care about the quality of its film. "If the first one is ruined, I will still watch the second one. What if the second one is shot well?"

Perhaps this is the reason why China capital spends a lot of money to buy and buy in Hollywood. The huge and loyal fan base and consumer desire bring rolling cash flow. This also caused Legendary Pictures, which had just been acquired by Wanda, to bet on "Warcraft" and the fan base behind it.

Although the pre-sale box office is amazing, whether this fan movie's box office can exceed the 2 billion predicted by many people or even surpass the miracle of "Mermaid" of 3.3 billion still depends on whether it can spread from the fan base to passers-by. Can "Warcraft", which is currently controversial in reputation, create miracles?

1. The pre-sales results are impressive? The subsequent development is worrying.

The pre-sale box office of the "Warcraft" film fully demonstrates its strong appeal. Yien's real-time box office data shows that as of 15 pm on the 8th, the box office of "Warcraft" that day had reached 165 million yuan, accounting for 90.48% of the box office that day. And its cumulative box office has exceeded 200 million yuan.

In the past, it was difficult for game-based films to obtain such box office volume. Even "Angry Birds", which is currently known as the most successful movie game adaptation, its highest single-day box office only accounted for 49.4% of the total value, lower than "Warcraft". Nearly half. "Speed and Furious 7", once the top box office for imported films, only earned 92% at the top box office.

This is of course due to the strong fan base behind Warcraft. Globally,"World of Warcraft" has reached 10.3 million simultaneous online users; in 2008, when "Burning Expedition" was launched, the number of domestic active players was 5 million, and the peak number of online users was 1 million.

However, after the box office explosion in the short term, whether subsequent development can continue becomes questionable. At least in the eyes of some people, this is still a fan movie that requires a lot of preparation work in advance. In the eyes of some players and fans, this film may have achieved their ten-year dream, but on the American professional film review website Rotten Tomatoes, the film index is only 24%. In addition, on Metacritic, the professional ratings of 13 film critics include 4 negative comments and 9 neutral comments, but no positive comments.

Someone on Douban asked,"Can you understand movies if you haven't played games?" One answer said: "People who have never played World of Warcraft are confused."

Loyalty to the original work and reasonable adaptation are such a natural contradiction that cannot be relieved. If you want to adapt it rationally, it means offending the fan base who contributes most of the box office to the film; but if you are honestly loyal to the original, you are likely to make a mistake like "Superman vs. Batman"-many critics and fans believe that this film is very "unfriendly" to non-DC fans, resulting in this US$250 million superhero blockbuster earning only 600 million at the box office in China.

After a short period of fan support, is this film a loyal fan movie or a special effects feast for all ages? The first batch of film reviews will be released tomorrow.

2. Fans don't look at reviews, but all look at feelings?

But fans have always been the most unpredictable group on the planet. At least two Warcraft game fans told me that no matter how bad this movie is, I need to support it. If given the opportunity, the second part will continue to support it.

Domestic and foreign fans have reached an unprecedented consensus on this point. How much Douban misses youth, how much Instagram and Facebook love to sing their feelings. Human Emperor Sky Li Xiaofeng bluntly said,"I will take all the company to book the venue to watch the premiere." As for the large number of European and American fans, while shouting "for the alliance" or "for the tribe" with domestic fans, they have achieved a complete harmony between China and the West. A state of complete harmony that has always been difficult to achieve.

In the eyes of many people, the quality of the film or whether it is a sequel or not seems to matter. The only thing worthy of their attention is the youth and passion symbolized behind the game of the same name. A loyal player of "World of Warcraft" told "Three Sounds" that for him, the reason why he was willing to support the box office after skipping tickets for 10 years was entirely out of "youth" and also based on "faith."

In the view of a vice president of a well-known domestic film and television company, audiences of films such as "Tiny Times" are brainless fans who do not have a sense of independence and will argue with critics in order to safeguard the dignity of the creator Guo Jingming; while the predecessor was born in 1994, World of Warcraft has a large number of post-80s fans who are now capable of consuming. These fans are relatively more independent. In short,"I support you, but it doesn't mean I recognize you."

According to him, after watching the film in the United States, a friend prepared a 5000-word long essay and scolded him after watching the premiere. This mentality also seems to be the common denominator among Warcraft fans. "Because it's the first movie, there are always risks, but I feel almost satisfied with the cutscenes effect." Some fans stated,"In fact, it was just like watching Harry Potter at the time. I thought the seventh book was terrible, so I still went to watch it."

3. What can Wanda, Huayi, and Tencent each earn from "Warcraft"?

China's capital has contributed greatly to the fact that "Warcraft" can stir up a whirlwind of emotions in China this time.

Wanda, Huayi, and Tencent, three film and television companies have respectively become investors or producers of the movie "Warcraft" in different ways. Huayi and Tencent Pictures invested in the project separately and announced that they would participate in the global box office share. This year, Wanda announced that it would acquire Legendary Pictures, the producer of "Warcraft", for US$3.5 billion, making it the China financial owner behind the film.

The three investors launched a big publicity campaign for this. Tencent has implanted elements of "Warcraft" in many applications, and has also joined forces with Station A and Dadi Cinema to promote it. The film's ability to obtain nearly 80% of the filming schedule is largely due to the Wanda Theater Line.

These three companies are obviously not like the movie market that needs to be rescued. They are just looking forward to the huge box office that "Warcraft", a golden IP. Tencent Pictures undoubtedly needs this film to prove its publicity capabilities, and Wanda, which is moving further and further towards internationalization, needs to rely on this film to go one step further.

Wanda Pictures, which purchased Legendary Pictures this year, was recently acquired by Wanda Cinema, with a valuation of 37.2 billion yuan attracting the attention of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. In response to questions about the excessive valuation of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, Wanda promised that according to the "Profit Forecast Compensation Agreement" signed by Wanda Cinema and Wanda Investment, the cumulative net profit of Wanda Film and Television for 2016, 2017 and 2018 will not be less than 5.098 billion yuan, allowing the valuation to be confirmed by data.

Legendary Pictures, which has become part of Wanda Films, needs to undertake part of its profitable business. Since "The Great Wall", one of Legendary Pictures 'two important films in 2016, has announced a change and will not be included in the 2016 performance assessment,"Warcraft" needs to bear a global box office volume of about US$1 billion. For Wanda, this is a difficult challenge.

These magical stories that are repeatedly told on the continent of Azeroth will be transformed into real gold and silver in the future.

4. Will Blizzard win back the market initiative when "Warcraft" is released?

For Blizzard, the real producer of "World of Warcraft", whether the movie is good or bad at the box office, it is a matter of killing two birds with one stone. Ten years later, an established game company hopes to return to people's attention. Nothing is more appropriate than a movie.

In recent years, the development of Blizzard, a game company that has attracted attention due to World of Warcraft, has declined, and many of its works have been no longer known since World of Warcraft. Since the behind-the-scenes capital craze set off by "Warcraft" came, Blizzard's figure has become clearer from looming. According to media reports, this company still maintains very strong creative capabilities. From "Hearthstone","Diablo" to today's "Overwatch", this company, which has become famous for "World of Warcraft", has used different game works to prove itself.

And this company now has dual insurance. After selling the rights to "Warcraft: Origin", Blizzard announced that it would establish Activision Blizzard Film Studio in November 2015 to adapt its remaining game IPs "Diablo" and "Call of Duty" into film and television works. Since this decision occurred just before the release of the first "Warcraft" movie, it can be speculated that even if "Warcraft" fails at the box office, Blizzard can still use this wave of attention it has won to concoct the next IP work; the "Warcraft" copyright that has already been sold is expected to return to Blizzard, laying a solid foundation for Blizzard to create the "Warcraft" series in the future.

Editor: Nancy