This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Once upon a time, the box-office figures for "Warcraft" would have spelled a movie's doom.

North American audiences rejected the sword-and-sorcery epic soundly when it was released in June. According to the number-crunching website Box Office Mojo, the fantasy sword-and-sorcerer film, based on the popular "World of Warcraft" video game, made $47.2 million at the box office — which was terrible news for the studio, Universal, that spent a reported $160 million making it.

So why is there talk, seemingly confirmed last month, that "Warcraft" will get a sequel? Because when it comes to blockbuster movies, North America isn't the only market Hollywood cares about anymore.

While "Warcraft" died a quick death domestically, it racked up a whopping $385.8 million internationally. That's 89 percent of the movie's total haul of $433 million.

Half of that total figure, $222 million, came from one country: China, birthplace of Donald Trump's neckties and, as of last year, the world's second-largest movie market.

In 2015, reported the Motion Picture Association of America, Chinese movie audiences generated $6.8 billion at the box office.

China's money, both from moviegoers and production companies, is gaining more clout with Hollywood studios. Some examples:

• The Chinese internet giant Alibaba Group's film division, Alibaba Pictures, has become a major investor in Paramount Pictures' movies, such as "Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation," "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows" and "Star Trek Beyond." (On "Star Trek Beyond," the Alibaba logo appears before the opening credits, even before the logo of producer J.J. Abrams' company, Bad Robot.)

• Chinese film company Huayi Brothers signed a three-year deal to finance the fledgling Hollywood distributor STX Entertainment, and the "H.Brothers" logo was displayed prominently on STX's two summer releases, the Civil War drama "Free State of Jones" and the raunch comedy "Bad Moms."

• Fox hedged its bets on "Independence Day: Resurgence" by casting a Chinese pop star, who goes by the single name Angelababy, as one of the fighter pilots battling alien invaders. (Michael Bay did something similar, staging scenes from the last "Transformers" movie in Shanghai.) The tactic paid off: "Independence Day: Resurgence" made a so-so $102 million domestically, but raked in $270.8 million from foreign markets — including $75.4 million in China.

• The absence of Chinese money is also felt by movie studios. Sony's "Ghostbusters" remake was denied a release in China, thus sharply curtailing the comedy's international box office. (As of Monday, "Ghostbusters" had made $107.9 million domestically and $51.7 million outside the United States and Canada.) Reasons given for China's rejection of "Ghostbusters" include a lack of interest — since the 1984 version was never released there — and a government ban on stories that "promote cults or superstition."

• Independent filmmakers are finding it harder to get Hollywood studios to bankroll their films, because they can't convince foreign investors that their movies will play well overseas. In a recent interview with IndieWire, director John Waters, who hasn't made a movie in a decade, put it bluntly: "I think my enemy is not Hollywood, my enemy is China."

Perhaps the strangest Hollywood-meets-China story in recent weeks centers on "The Great Wall," a U.S./China co-production to be released next February by Universal Pictures.

The movie, according to Daily Variety, is the biggest globally distributed movie ever to film in China. It is the first English-language film by the great Chinese director Zhang Yimou ("Hero," "Raise the Red Lantern"), with an international cast mixing stars from America (Matt Damon and Willem Dafoe), Europe (Spanish actor Pedro Pascal) and China (stars Andy Lau and Jing Tian).

The story is set in the 1400s and follows an elite squad of soldiers making a last stand for humankind on China's Great Wall, against mythical beasts.

The movie's trailer was released last week and brought with it some sharp criticism about an old Hollywood issue: casting Anglo stars in the leads of stories set in lands populated predominantly by people of color.

The loudest voice of criticism was Constance Wu, star of the sitcom "Fresh Off the Boat." Wu, an American-born daughter of Taiwanese immigrants, was not buying the usual Hollywood whitewashing.

"Our heroes don't look like Matt Damon," Wu wrote on her Twitter feed. "They look like Malala. Gandhi. Mandela. Your big sister when she stood up for you to those bullies that one time."

She pooh-poohed the standard Hollywood excuse that putting a "bankable" star in the lead protects the investment of the production. "Think only a huge movie star can sell a movie? That has NEVER been a total guarantee," she wrote.

Wu wrote that she wasn't out to blame individuals on this movie, but her aim was "about pointing out the repeatedly implied racist notion that white people are superior to [people of color] and that [people of color] need salvation from our own color via white strength. When you consistently make movies like this, you ARE saying that. YOU ARE. Yes, YOU ARE. YES YOU ARE. Yes dude, you f—ing ARE."

As this coupling of Hollywood and China goes on, and the money involved increases, both sides should prepare for more stories of cultural clashes. Most marriages of convenience have their bumps along the way.

Sean P. Means writes The Cricket in daily blog form at http://www.sltrib.com/blogs/moviecricket. Follow him on Twitter @moviecricket. Email him at spmeans@sltrib.com.