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 Bookwrack wrote:

 Veteran Sergeant wrote:

The only way a Warcraft sequel happens is if it happens for the Chinese audience (possibly a first of its kind for a franchise). It wasn't just "more popular" in China. It completely bombed in America. Opened at #2 and its only competition were sequels to The Conjuring and Now You See Me. It experienced a 66% drop in its second weekend, and was being beaten by X-Men Apocalypse (in it's 5th week) by week 3. Final US receipts probably only barely covered their worldwide marketing spend, let alone the production costs. The US market didn't care about Warcraft, and worse, the movie itself was terrible.

As I recall, it made $50 million in the U.S. box office having cost $150 million to make. I'm curious what home release returns will be like, but the quality of the movie itself makes a good point about the difficulty in making a movie that not only appeals to people who know the franchise, but pulls in new audience as well.

Because a scene that makes someone who is already into 40K go, 'holy gak, that reveal of Horus! It's awesome, and that conversation with Sanguinius, man this is amazing!' needs to also appeal to the person there because they like sci-fi action but have none of the background and expectations. I think the warcraft movie shows just how hard it can be to generate that kind of cross audience appeal.

Revealing characters like Horus and Sanguinius will just make non-fans go, "Who is that? I feel like they're supposed to be important but I really have no idea why."


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RyanAvx wrote:
I really liked the Warcraft movie though.

I didn't.

There's no guarantee what reaction you'll have to a 40k movie until you actually watch it.

 Pouncey wrote:

 Bookwrack wrote:

 Veteran Sergeant wrote:

The only way a Warcraft sequel happens is if it happens for the Chinese audience (possibly a first of its kind for a franchise). It wasn't just "more popular" in China. It completely bombed in America. Opened at #2 and its only competition were sequels to The Conjuring and Now You See Me. It experienced a 66% drop in its second weekend, and was being beaten by X-Men Apocalypse (in it's 5th week) by week 3. Final US receipts probably only barely covered their worldwide marketing spend, let alone the production costs. The US market didn't care about Warcraft, and worse, the movie itself was terrible.

As I recall, it made $50 million in the U.S. box office having cost $150 million to make. I'm curious what home release returns will be like, but the quality of the movie itself makes a good point about the difficulty in making a movie that not only appeals to people who know the franchise, but pulls in new audience as well.

Because a scene that makes someone who is already into 40K go, 'holy gak, that reveal of Horus! It's awesome, and that conversation with Sanguinius, man this is amazing!' needs to also appeal to the person there because they like sci-fi action but have none of the background and expectations. I think the warcraft movie shows just how hard it can be to generate that kind of cross audience appeal.

Revealing characters like Horus and Sanguinius will just make non-fans go, "Who is that? I feel like they're supposed to be important but I really have no idea why."


Automatically Appended Next Post:

RyanAvx wrote:
I really liked the Warcraft movie though.

I didn't.

There's no guarantee what reaction you'll have to a 40k movie until you actually watch it.

I agree with your points entirely. I think the biggest fault of most video game movies is trying to cram too much lore into a small film. As you said, non-fans won't recognize most characters and having too many core characters just appear is a bad thing. It's why a film about Space Hulk would be succesful I think. Only 5 main human characters in the whole thing and lots of aliens that can be re-used CGI as they look so similar anyway.

 Azazelx wrote:
Test audiences didn't like the ending where the Emperor (Tom Hardy) was condemned to the Golden Throne, so it got changed so that he and Eldrad Ulthran (Scarlett Johanssen) get together as a couple and ride of heroically into the sunset on a Jetbike.

This is a jab at the non-director's cut Brazil, right?

RyanAvx wrote:
I agree with your points entirely. I think the biggest fault of most video game movies is trying to cram too much lore into a small film. As you said, non-fans won't recognize most characters and having too many core characters just appear is a bad thing. It's why a film about Space Hulk would be succesful I think. Only 5 main human characters in the whole thing and lots of aliens that can be re-used CGI as they look so similar anyway.

You definitely want to avoid a cast of characters too large, so people can remember their names more easily.

You probably also want to stay away from recreating a specific story in the game's lore, especially any well-known ones, because you'll never be able to recreate the book/game version.

The 40k universe is founded heavily on the idea of making your own story though, so it's easy to still be 40k-related and yet invent a unique story based on well-known armies in the game's lore. That way you show fans something they have no idea how it'll end, avoiding pissing off lore purists, and you still have to introduce the story for both fans and non-fans alike.

You should also not explain any part of the setting that's not directly related to the story you're inventing for the movie, to avoid overloading people with information that doesn't help the movie itself. For example, if you're not doing a story about Chaos, avoid talking about heresy or the Warp, because that explanation will feel pointless to non-fans.

Also, if you're going to do a Space Hulk movie, DON'T make the enemy Tyranids. The Alien reference is WAY too on-the-nose and it will come off as a rip-off, the way the Warcraft movie came off as a rip-off of LotR.


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Oh, and for a 40k-specific thing, avoid all technobabble or demonstrations of how the tech works. No one in the 40k universe understands tech, and demonstrating the mechanical functions would just get torn apart by actual weapon experts.