‘Warcraft’: Another film featuring giants fails at Pakistani box office

One of the most anticipated movies of the year fails to meet expectations in Pakistan

KARACHI: There is a long list of video games-based movies that have floundered at the box office over the years. Initial trailers for the film adaptation of the popular video gaming series, Warcraft, had gaming enthusiasts and cinema-goers psyched with anticipation. However, this movie too, failed to break the curse and ended up giving a disappointing run at the box office during its opening days.

Scheduled to officially release on June 6 worldwide, the movie was given an early release in selected territories including Pakistan. Despite the head-start, the film was unable to do well during its opening weekend in the country, earning a measly Rs8 million only. Corroborating the news to The Express Tribune, FootPrint Pvt Ltd General Manager Mirza Saad Baig said, “Surprisingly, the movie underperformed at the local box office.”



According to Baig, prior to the film’s release the distributors were aiming for an opening weekend in the range of Rs20 million but the movie fell short of its initial targets. Unable to pinpoint the exact reasons for the movie’s failure, the general manager felt that the  unexpected performance was a combination of multiple factors — mainly the season and genre. “Historically films featuring giants [and mystical creatures] have never done well in the country. Both Jack the Giant Slayer and The Hobbit trilogy didn’t do well in Pakistan,” he said. He also added that with Ramazan right around the corner, cinema houses have been receiving less traffic than usual, which may be another factor that could have contributed to the film’s failure.

Despite the movie’s slow start, Baig was optimistic that it had enough steam to cross the Rs20 million-mark eventually. “What we’ve gauged is that the film has been well-received mostly with audiences that are interested in video games. So we are hopeful that it can sustain in multiplexes for a while,” he added. Aiming to capture the attention of the single screen cinema audiences, distributors have also released Hindi-dubbed versions.

Directed by Duncan Jones, Warcraft follows the encounters between humans and orcs, shot at a variety of locations established in the video game series. The movie was released on 47 digital screens across Pakistan.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 1^st, 2016.

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