Adapting the large mega-franchise screen of the Video Minecraft game brought $ 58 million on Friday, placing it on the right track for a $ 135 million in-country opening weekend or potentially even more.
This would give “a Minecraft Film” the largest opening of the year, beating “Captain America: Brave New World” (who earned $ 88.8 million on its opening weekend) and providing a highly needed boost to the theater box. Comscore recently estimated that the 2025 Box Office instead of 2025 was 7% decreased year by year, and this is at the forefront of a considerable decline from the pre-fandemic era.
Comes to the rescue: video games, especially children’s friendly video games, which can soon eclipse Superhero comics as the most reliable model for Hollywood blockbusters. “The Super Mario Brothers movie” was one of the biggest hits of 2023 (after only “Barbie”), and “Sonic The Hedgehog 3” was a great success during the last winter holidays.
Minecraft game, first developed by Marcus “Notch” Persson and won by Microsoft in 2014, has a mass audience, with 204 million active monthly users in December. But it also presented particular challenges, as it offers them players a virtual sandbox, rather than a specific story or group of characters to fit.
Directed by Jared Hess (best known for “Napoleon Dynamite”), with six credited screenwriters, “A Minecraft Film” belongs to these challenges by transporting human characters (played by Jason Momoa, Jack Black, and others) in a fantastic animated world in the famous Minecraft style. The film has received mixed ratings – but then, so did the “Super Mario Brothers film”, and this proved no obstacle to the massive success in the cash register.
The big weekend of “A Minecraft Movie” is also welcome news for Warner Bros. So it’s probably sure to assume that we will see a continuation.
