(单词翻译:单击)
Warcraft: The Beginning, the film of the hit computer game, opened in China last week, taking $156m in five days and topping box offices.
改编自热门电脑游戏的电影《魔兽:起源》于上周登陆中国影院,在五天之内就席卷了1.56亿美元的票房,高居票房首位。
Comparatively, Star Wars: The Force Awakens took $125.4m during its entire box office run in China. Warcraft is now on its way to overtake Furious 7 as the highest-grossing Hollywood film in China.
相比之下,《星球大战:原力觉醒》整个上映期只在中国获得了1.254亿美元的票房。《魔兽》即将取代《速度与激情7》,成为在华票房最高的好莱坞电影。
In the US, the film is considered to have bombed, having opened to the tune of $24.4m. Warcraft also received critical reviews, getting only 27% on ratings website Rotten Tomatoes.
然而在美国,《魔兽》却已经被认为很失败了,上映至今只收获了2440万美元的票房。此外,《魔兽》还受到了许多人的批评,在烂番茄网站上,这部电影的新鲜度只有27%。
So why has Warcraft performed so well in China?
那么,为什么《魔兽》在中国表现这么好?
Globally, the majority of WoW players are men aged 18-35, a demographic which often has expendable income. And China has long been one of the biggest markets, making up about half of the game's five million players. The game was first introduced in China in 2005, at a time when online access and internet cafes were growing rapidly.
从全球来看,魔兽的大多数玩家是男性,年龄在18到35岁之间,这部分人群的可支配收入往往很可观。而中国一直是魔兽游戏的最大市场,在其全球500万玩家中,中国玩家几乎占到了其中的一半。魔兽游戏第一次被引入中国是在2005年,当时中国互联网接入和网吧的数量都增长得非常快。
The film adaptation, with a budget of $160m, was released on 67% of China's 39,000 screens in the middle of last week. The opening coincided with the Dragon Boat Festival, a public holiday across China, so the potential audience was vast.
据悉,这部电影改编的预算达到了1亿6千万美元。自从上周三登陆中国市场以来,已在中国67%的影院中上映(全国39000家影院)。而该电影首映期恰逢中国的端午节,在这个全国性的法定节假日期间,《魔兽》的潜在观众数量非常巨大。
It did face competition - X-Men: Apocalypse, the Angry Birds Movie and Tim Burton's Alice Through the Looking Glass were the other main Hollywood flicks showing in China. But none could touch the appeal of Warcraft.
《魔兽:起源》并非没有竞争--《X战警:天启》、《愤怒的小鸟》、《爱丽丝魔镜之旅》等好莱坞电影也在中国市场上映。但是没有那一部电影的吸引力能够和《魔兽》相比。
The studio behind the movie, Legendary Entertainment, was earlier this year acquired by Chinese conglomerate Dalian Wanda for $3.5bn. Legendary's in-house marketing teams reportedly cut several dozen pieces of China-specific footage, and released more trailers for the movie in China than in the US.
这部电影是由“传奇娱乐”工作室制作的,在今年年初,这个电影工作室被万达以35亿美元的价格收购。据报道,传奇娱乐美国营销团队删减了几十个中国特色的镜头,并且在中国发布的预告片要比在美国市场发布的更多。
It also brought on companies such as computer maker Lenovo, chip maker Intel, car maker Jeep and brewery Tsingtao to sponsor the show.
这部电影还获得了来自电脑厂商联想、芯片制造商英特尔、汽车制造商吉普和青岛啤酒等公司的赞助。
"Many of the decision-makers at these brands were 'Warcraft' players," Peter Loehr, chief executive of Legendary East, Legendary's China arm, told the LA times.
传奇娱乐中国分社“传奇东方”的CEO皮特·罗异告诉《洛杉矶时报》说:“这些公司的许多决策者都是'魔兽'的玩家。”
Hollywood actor Jackie Chan recently told the Shanghai Film Festival that the success of Warcraft had "scared" Americans. "If we can make a film that earns 10bn yuan then people from all over the world who study film will learn Chinese, instead of us learning English."
最近在上海电影节上,据好莱坞大腕成龙透露,《魔兽》在中国市场的成功“吓坏”了美国人。“如果我们可以拍一部票房达到100亿(元)的电影,那么全世界研究电影的人就会学习中文,而不是学习英文。”