Duncan Jones's Warcraft is the highest-grossing video game movie ever

Warcraft: The Beginning has become the highest grossing movie based on a video game of all time, an unexpected turn of events after a dismal display in its domestic US market upon its opening earlier in June. The fantasy epic's saving grace has been China, where Warcraft has been a huge success.

Currently, Warcraft: The Beginning's box office total sits at $379m (£257m, €334m), most of which is made up of the $200m-plus haul in China, where the film has already outperformed Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

The previous highest-grossing video game move was 2010's Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, which outperformed Warcraft in the US but grossed $336m worldwide. The Angry Birds movie, another game adaptation, has currently made $328mn at the box office and could well become the second-highest grossing video game film. All three films were panned by the critics.

Other notable gaming adaptations include Resident Evil: Afterlife ($296m), Lara Croft: Tomb Raider ($275m), Need For Speed ($203m), Mortal Kombat ($122m) and the disastrous bomb that was Doom (£56m).

Warcraft has been savaged by critics, scoring a lamentable 29% of film critic round-up site Rotten Tomatoes, and clearly didn't connect with a US audience, but has found success regardless. With a contingent of fans, it seems likely the film will become something of a cult favourite, and could yet spawn a sequel if its Chinese run continues to succeed.

Asked on Twitter if he'd be up for making a sequel, director Duncan Jones (Moon, Source Code) seemed enthusiastic.

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