ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS NOBODY IS ASKING: Why ‘Warcraft 2’ May Never Play in US Theaters:

Legendary Entertainment’s fantasy epic based on the “World of Warcraft” video game series starred American actors such as Paula Patton and Ben Foster. But the movie’s dominant international box office — it made $220.8 million in China and set a record for the biggest disparity between domestic and foreign receipts — means that “Warcraft 2” might draw its talent elsewhere. And given “Warcraft’s” weak performance at home, it may not even play in American theaters at all.

“Who says it needs to have American actors?” Sky Moore, a partner at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan who’s worked on several U.S.-China co-production deals, told TheWrap. “I would suspect that the sequel would be more China-centric. It’s very possible it wouldn’t be released here.”

Back in the old days, Hollywood moguls reminded their directors to make movies “that will play in Peoria.” These days, they’re far more interested in films that play in the People’s Republic of China.  If you’ve ever wondered why the current crop of American summer movie product sucks like a Hoover, this article explains why – for Hollywood, based in a more or less American state called California, the rest of America simply isn’t its core audience anymore. “And as China’s box office continues to grow — despite a summer slump this year, it could pass the U.S. as the world’s largest as soon as 2017 — Moore said that could lead to sequels of movies that connected a lot more with Chinese than American audiences being produced for that market.”

So much for Peoria.