6) Poor Projected Box Office
The good news for Warcraft is that foreign business is good. Duncan Jones’ film has earned almost $40 million before even hitting US shores. It’s number one in many countries around the world, and is also one of the biggest film debuts in Russia ever, coming second only to Deadpool. The bad news is that the figures that still matter most are US ones, and the projected American box office doesn’t look nearly good enough to justify any sequels.
Early reports suggest Warcraft will take only around $25 million on its US opening, and though that may sound like a lot compared to the total worldwide gross so far, consider that X-Men: Apocalypse took $65 million on its opening US weekend (and that was deemed disappointing). Also take into account that Warcraft cost $160 million, and currently might not even be on track to break even. Universal probably won’t be willing to fund a sequel for that reason alone.