MOVIE NEWS – Reviews of Warcraft are already out and most of them do not paint it in a favorable light. You can read our review here.  The other reviews think it’s a movie made for gamers only, and some have implied at a big summer flop. While we have no idea how the movie will manage in the U.S., since it won’t open in that country until June 10, the movie is a success at the box offices with an impressive $16.3M debut through Friday in International markets.

Directed by the late David Bowie’s son Duncan Jones, Warcraft lands from Legendary and Universal Pictures as yet another video game adaptation in a market with a clear lack of success in that area. The movie took in $9.3M on Thursday, invading a total of 20 markets. The movie is currently #1 at the foreign box office in 19 of those, defying expectations all around. According to Deadline, the movie is looking at a weekend cume of $30M. Over the next two months, Warcraft will continue to spread throughout the globe, with 45 more markets to hit.

The biggest market for Warcraft is expected to be China, a major gaming hub. The battle fueled movie has already fared quite well in Russia and Germany. In Russia, this Azeroth set fantasy adventure has taken in a two-day total of $4.9 million, owning 65% percent of the market share. German audiences have already ponied up $3.5 million with a 45% share of the market. This comes after the movie scored the biggest opening day of 2016 in that country.

The video game adaptation is appealing to fans of the game right out of the gate, with the tremendous majority of audience members familiar with the title. The movie hasn’t fared quite so well in France, though, where it has pulled in $2.2 million after mid-level reviews from critics. Viewers have been much more kind, awarding it a rather high 4.4 out of 5 stars. The movie went onto open #1 in Sweden, where it took in $539 thousand on Friday. This was Universal’s third biggest opening in the country behind Fifty Shades of Grey and Furious 7. Other countries where it opened #1 include Austria, Denmark, Egypt, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Latvia, Lebanon, Middle East, Norway, Pakistan, Slovenia, Switzerland, Thailand. Only in the Philippines did it open at #2.

The Warcraft movie stars Travis Fimmel, Dominic Cooper, Ben Foster, Paula Patton, Toby Kebbell, Ben Schnetzer, Robert Kazinsky and Daniel Wu. This action epic is directed by Duncan Jones from a script he co-wrote with Charles Leavitt. Warcraft is a Legendary Pictures, Blizzard Entertainment and Atlas Entertainment production.