http://gamerant.com/warcraft-movie-most-successful-video-game/

Interesting, I didn't expect this, after reading some reviews in Rotten Tomatoes and other websites.
It has only 23% in R.T.

I haven't watched yet, so I can't say if it's deserved, or not.

Blizzard is having a good profit with the movie, so that may motive them to make a sequel.

Did you like the movie, and would you like a sequel??

He makes some money, though:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wYtG7aQTHA

Considering the average level of videogame movies, topping them all is not exactly a huge accomplishment.

considering one of the best video game movies was mortal kombat for the past 20 years

Ah dude mk 1 movie was a blast and I still have the cd soundtrack of it

I wouldn't be surprised. The first electronic game was made in the early 1950s. There was approximately 2.5 billion people living on this planet during that time. We now have about 7.4 billion. The popularity of video games has increased each year, including the number of video gamers. Which would mean that more people are likely to go watch a movie related to a video game, because they can relate to it. World of Warcraft peaked at 12 million subscribers, not including the legacy gamers. The Warcraft franchise can easily claim 19 million units sold. The next movie will undoubtedly bring in more cash, because it's inevitable. More people on the planet = more people to watch movies, especially if they are gamers. If Warcraft came out in the 1950s, but released a movie in the 1990s, it wouldn't be nearly as big as it is today, because there was only approximately 5.2 billion people back then, and most of them didn't even know what a video game was.

EDIT:
I would like to add that in that article you posted they state it broke a record set by a video game movie from 2010, surpassing 41 million from the previous. Which seems logical, because there was only 6.8 billion people on the planet in 2010 and the Prince of Persia franchise sold around 20 million units. The statistics speak for themselves. Equal units sold + world population increased + number of video gamers in world increased = number of related video game movie sales increased. It doesn't matter the quality of the movie, because you can see from this statement in the article, "This figure plummeted to $6 million in its second week, an enormous drop of about 73% ", clearly means the movie is terrible. I don't need to watch it for myself to see that. Also, too much CGI in a movie is unappealing to people that watch a lot of movies, like myself, so just from the trailer I can tell it's not a movie I'm going to enjoy; And I'm an old school gamers, I've played all the games in the franchise since the first release of Warcraft: Orcs and Humans.

Really was a good film, all things considered. And the soundtrack was pretty cool too, now that you mention it.

I could actually think of several fairly decent video game movies, although they usually tend to stray from the storyline and characters of the games they're based on, for better or worse. And things really go downhill once they start making sequels.

On topic: It's *beep*ing World of Warcraft, quite possibly the most well known and biggest game franchise in existence -- Of course the thing is a commercial success, regardless of its quality.

I went to see it 2 days ago and I did not like it at all I left with I think 34 minutes left cause it was horrible, They pretty much retcon a few things and give every character too little screen time to develop the character and cliff hanger for the second film, Which makes me think will there be any if this does not do good as it shows?

So... there will be 'Warcraft 2: The Search for More Money' then? ;)

It's different in this case, though.
Sure, a lot of people just watched because it's Warcraft, probably didn't even read what the movie is about, or who is the protagonist, before buying the ticket.
But it received 81% in Rotten Tomatoes, in audience score. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/warcraft/
Which suggests that after the movie ended, and the screen turned black, they exited the theather smiling. So it can't be so bad...
If the movie was total garbage, they would tell their friends what a shit they just watched, and I doubt that many would give positive votes just to troll.

Edit:
In the end, I won't be "guided" by the critic reviews (which rated very bad, as you can see in OP) or the normal reviews, I'll have to watch it.
Abot the CGI which someone was commenting about, meh, I don't care if the graphics aren't ultra realistic or if there's too much of them.
Finding Nemo is still a good movie, even if the graphics are awful nowadays.

Meh, I think Metal Gear Solid IV was a much better movie.

It got panned by the critics, but I actually think the Wing Commander movie wasn't too bad.

Ace Attorney, maybe?

I think that was his point: Bay's movies are popular (and, therefore, financially successful), but they're widely derided not only by professional critics, but by a lot of the people who willingly watch them. Kinda like Adam Sandler movies.