International
Warcraft shatters IMAX opening-day box office records; Grosses $5.32 million, or RMB 35 million on 290 IMAX® screens across China
MUMBAI: IMAX Corporation (NYSE: IMAX) and IMAX China (HKSE: 1970) today announced that Warcraft, released by Legendary Pictures, scored a record-setting opening day – including midnight shows – in 290 IMAX® theatres across China with box office of $5.33 million, or RMB 35 million. The new all-time record surpassed the previous record-holder Furious 7’s RMB 31 million. In addition, Warcraft also breaks the IMAX midnight show (RMB 9.03 million) and presale (RMB 53.8 million) record in China, driven by its strong following.
Warcraft was adapted by Blizzard Entertainment’s video game juggernaut and its release date in China is two days ahead of North America. Of the total for midnight grosses, Wanda’s 151 IMAX screens accounted for RMB 4.7 million, or nearly half.
John Zeng, President and board director of Wanda Cinema Line Corporation said: “I’m thrilled to see what Wanda IMAX screens have achieved in presale and midnight show box office, which is the best example to show that the pairing of Wanda Cinema’s premier theater environment and IMAX technologies has been strongly recognized by the Chinese moviegoers. And I believe it is only the start for Warcraft’s journey in China.
“Warcraft presents a spectacular world for moviegoers and IMAX is definitely the best way to experience the scenes. We are excited about this incredible opening across IMAX screens in China and look forward to the future partnership with IMAX to bring new record-setting films to the moviegoers,” said Peter Loehr, Managing Director of Legendary East.
“Warcraft has become a true cultural phenomenon in China, and IMAX is pleased that the fans’ passion and loyalty has translated into this record-setting opening day for IMAX,” said Greg Foster, Senior Executive Vice President, IMAX Corp. and CEO of IMAX Entertainment. “Congratulations to Legendary, Wanda, Universal and all of our other partners involved in this film. We are proud that our collaboration has resulted not only in these fantastic numbers, but has launched a new cinematic franchise.”
The IMAX® 3D release of Warcraft will be digitally re-mastered into the image and sound quality of The IMAX Experience® with proprietary IMAX DMR® (Digital Re-mastering) technology. The crystal-clear images, coupled with IMAX’s customized theatre geometry and powerful digital audio, create a unique environment that will make audiences feel as if they are in the movie.
LOS ANGELES: Acting has never been an easy profession, but in recent years, it has acquired a new existential anxiety. Artificial intelligence can now mimic faces, clone voices and, in theory at least, speak any language it is fed. The fear that actors may soon be replaced by algorithms no longer belongs exclusively to science fiction. And yet, despite the rise of digital inauthenticity, some performers remain stubbornly resistant to replacement. The reason is not celebrity, nor even talent. It is language.
On paper, this should not be a problem. AI can translate. It can imitate accents. It can string together grammatically correct sentences in dozens of languages. But acting, inconveniently, is not about grammatical correctness. It is about meaning, and meaning is where AI still falters.
Machine translation offers a cautionary tale. Google Translate, now powered by neural AI, has improved markedly since its debut in 2006. It can manage menus, emails and airport signage with impressive efficiency. What it struggles with, however, are the moments that matter most: idioms, metaphors, irony, and cultural shorthand. Ask it to translate a joke, a threat disguised as politeness, or a line heavy with emotional subtext, and it begins to unravel. Acting lives precisely in those gaps.
This matters because film language is rarely literal. Scripts, particularly in independent cinema, rely on figurative speech and symbolism to convey what characters cannot say outright. Pedro Almodóvar’s Volver is a useful example. The film’s recurring use of red operates on multiple levels: grief, desire, repression, liberation, and memory. These meanings are inseparable from the Spanish cultural context and emotional cadence. A translation may convey the words, but not the weight they carry. An AI-generated performance might replicate the sound, but not the sense.
This is where multilingual actors gain their edge. Performers such as Penélope Cruz and Sofía Vergara do not simply switch between languages; they move between cultural logics. Their fluency allows them to inhabit characters without flattening them for international consumption. Language, for them, is not an accessory but a structuring force.
Beyond European cinema, this becomes even more pronounced. Languages such as Hindi, Arabic and Mandarin are spoken by hundreds of millions of people and underpin vast cinematic traditions. As global audiences grow more interconnected, the demand for authenticity increases rather than diminishes. Viewers can tell when a performance has been filtered through approximation. Subtle errors, misplaced emphasis, and an unnatural rhythm break the illusion.
There is also a practical dimension. Multilingualism expands opportunity. Sofía Vergara has spoken openly about how learning English enabled her to work beyond Colombia and access Hollywood roles. But this movement is not a one-way export of talent into English-speaking cinema. Multilingual actors carry stories, styles and sensibilities back with them, enriching multiple industries at once.
Cinema has always thrived on such hybridity. Denzel Washington’s performances, for instance, draw on the cultural realities of growing up African American in the United States, while also reflecting stylistic influences from classic Hollywood and Westerns. His work demonstrates how identity and influence intersect on screen. Multilingual actors extend this intersection further, embodying multiple cultural frameworks simultaneously.
At times, linguistic authenticity is not merely artistic but ethical. Films that confront historical trauma, such as Schindler’s List, rely on language to anchor their moral seriousness. When Jewish actors perform in German, the choice is not incidental. Language becomes a site of memory and confrontation. It is difficult to imagine an automated voice carrying that responsibility without hollowing it out.
This is why claims that AI heralds the death of language miss the point. Language is not just a delivery system for information. It is a repository of history, humour, power and pain. Fluency is not only about knowing what to say, but when to hesitate, when to understate, and when to let silence do the work. These are not technical problems waiting to be solved; they are human instincts shaped by lived experience.
AI may one day improve its grasp of metaphor and nuance. It may even learn to sound convincing. But acting is not about sounding convincing; it is about being convincing. Until algorithms can acquire memory, cultural inheritance and emotional intuition, multilingual actors will remain irreplaceable. AI may learn to speak. But it cannot yet learn to mean.
In an industry increasingly tempted by shortcuts, language remains stubbornly resistant to automation. And for actors who can move between worlds, linguistic, cultural, and emotional, that resistance is not a weakness, but a quiet, enduring advantage.
