US actor Justice Smith at the Pokemon Detective Pikachu premiere, Times Square, New York City, on May 2. — AFP Relaxnews
Theatres in five remaining territories still showing Pokémon Detective Pikachu propelled the adventure movie past US$436mil (RM1.79bil) worldwide, a new record for films based on video games.
Pokémon Detective Pikachu is now the most commercially successful movie to be based on a video game, after weekend takings pushed it into top spot.
Cinemas in Norway, New Zealand, Slovenia, Portugal and Colombia generated US$6,994 (RM28,702) over the weekend of July 12-14, per data published by Amazon's Box Office Mojo.
By adding that to tallies of US$143.3mil (RM588.1mil, domestic, as of July 14) and US$286mil (RM1.17bil) (foreign, as of July 7), at US$436mil (RM1.79bil) Pokémon Detective Pikachu overtakes Warcraft in terms of both critical response and box office revenue.
Pokémon Detective Pikachu was already the best-received video game adaptation, usurping Dwayne Johnson monster movie Rampage and Alicia Vikander's Tomb Raider, according to Rotten Tomatoes' aggregated review score ranking.
The live-action and CGI movie starred Justice Smith as a former Pokémon trainer and Ryan Reynolds as the gruff, smart-talking but otherwise cuddly-looking, mystery-solving rodent.
Rob Letterman of Shark Tale, Monsters vs. Aliens and Goosebumps directed from a script whose contributors had worked on Guardians Of The Galaxy, TV's One Day At A Time reboot, Jurassic World and Kong: Skull Island.
Visual effects group Motion Picture Company was previously Oscar-nominated for its work on ten other movies, winning twice for The Life Of Pi and The Jungle Book.
Warcraft, a June 2016 CGI spectacular from BAFTA Award-winning director Duncan Jones (Moon, Source Code), hauled in nearly half of its own record revenue from China, whose theatrical showings generated US$213.5mil (RM876.28mil). – AFP Relaxnews
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