Warcraft shatters midnight premiere advance ticket sales record of Wanda Cinema

The poster of Warcraft
Warcraft fans wait to attend the premiere at a Wanda Cinema
Warcraft fans cosplayAt 10:03 p.m. on June 7, less than three hours before the official premiere of Warcraft, a new record in movie history was written: Wanda Cinema Line Corp, which recently acquired Legendary Entertainment, announced that box office pre-sales for the midnight premiere of Warcraft had surged past Rmb10 million, surpassing the Rmb8.8 million "single cinema line midnight premiere box office" record set by Fast & Furious 7 at Wanda Cinema Line in 2015.

This explosive Warcraft phenomenon has undoubtedly given a shot of adrenaline to the Chinese film market, which has been somewhat sluggish in recent months. For Wanda, the significance of Warcraft's success carries additional significance. At the beginning of the year, Wanda completed the largest overseas cultural acquisition of Chinese enterprises - it spent USD3.5 billion to acquire a 100% stake in US film company Legendary Entertainment. Warcraft was the first film to be distributed and screened in China after Wanda's acquisition of Legendary. There is no better response to questions raised within the industry as to whether Wanda is able to lift Legendary from its losses than a resounding victory.

With fierce marketing and exclusive pre-sales, Wanda IMAX’s ticket pre-sales for Warcraft could be instantly comparable to fighting for tickets during the Spring festival travel rush, with cinema occupancy ratios in Tiers 1 and 2 cities close to 100%. Many cinemas added 2am, and even 5am screenings for the occasion.

Meanwhile, Wanda Cinema brought the feelings of Warcraft fans to full play. Overnight, all Wanda Cinemas were turned into Warcraft arenas. Wanda also brought in VR and interactive technology to take the viewing experience of Warcraft to an even higher level. In 10 Wanda Cinemas, fans were able to turn themselves into King Llane at the exclusive VR zone and experience a cool ride on a griffin, flying across the Kingdom of Azeroth (Kingdom of Stormwind).