Photo: Universal Pictures

Chris Luckett

Universal Pictures’ Warcraft is getting abysmal reviews, but that hasn’t stopped it from setting a new record in China for the biggest non-weekend opening ever.

Warcraft opened in China Wednesday to the equivalent of $46-million, easily beating previous record holder The Avengers: Age of Ultron‘s opening of $28-million.

Estimates for the five-day launch period of June 8-12 in China had been between $100-million and $150-million, but that now looks to be conservative.

With expectations in the United States and Canada very low for the picture and pundits predicting a North American opening of less than $25-million, the picture’s achievement could have huge implications for how movies are made or marketed.

Box office success in North American could no longer be necessary to ensure a movie’s profitability with such success in foreign markets, particularly in China.

Warcraft also set a Chinese record for largest IMAX opening day, with an equivalent of $5-million coming from the large-format screens, toppling previous record-holder Furious 7.

(Source: Deadline)