Not even the most optimistic projections for Warner Bros./Legendary’s “A Minecraft Movie” had it on the threshold of a bigger opening weekend than “Barbie,” but that is where we are as it has set a new video game adaptation record with a breathtaking $157 million from 4,269 theaters and a global launch of $301 million.
After weeks of poor turnout at movie theaters and the worst March box office outside the pandemic since the 1990s, “Minecraft” has had the same drought-busting effect on the marketplace that Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” had last summer. By the end of the weekend, the year-to-date box office total is expected to go from 11% down year-over-year to 6% and should continue to shrink with an April market that will be far more robust than last year’s.
The “Jumanji”-esque adventure film stars Jack Black as Steve, the player avatar in the hit video game from Mojang Studios who guides four people lost in the block-filled Overworld and teaches them how to survive against the creatures that lie within. Exhibitors have told TheWrap over the weekend that their auditoriums have seen increased demand as the weekend has gone on, with a Friday-to-Saturday 3% increase that wasn’t even seen with Warner’s last huge box office hit, “Barbie.”
If “Minecraft” overperforms in Sunday matinees, it could top the $162 million 3-day opening of “Barbie” back in July 2023, having already joined the top 5 highest opening weekends before inflation adjustment for Warner Bros. It has also passed the $146.3 million 3-day opening of “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” for the largest opening weekend ever by a video game film.
“A Minecraft Movie” carries a reported $150 million budget, with 75% footed by Warner Bros. and the rest by Legendary. That is a flip in the production budget share for Warner and Legendary’s 2024 hit “Dune: Part Two,” but nonetheless continues what has been a fruitful partnership between the two studios.
“We’re absolutely overjoyed ‘A Minecraft Movie’ has been so warmly received by audiences around the world,” Warner Bros.’ film chiefs Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy said in a statement thanking Legendary and Vertigo entertainment as well as their marketing and distribution teams. “’A Minecraft Movie’’s decade long journey to the screen was overseen with great care by WBP’s Jesse Ehrman and his team, and we are thrilled their efforts have resulted in such a tremendous response.”
What’s interesting is that audience reception, while still positive, isn’t as strong as “Mario” or other recent family hits. CinemaScore grades came in at a B+ — usually a warning sign for family films since kids and parents usually give top marks — while PostTrak came in at 65% definite recommend and the audience Rotten Tomatoes score stands at 87%.
Yet on social media, the general consensus is that “Minecraft” benefits from seeing it in a theater, with kids and gamers cheering as Jack Black makes one reference after another to the memes created by the game’s fans over the years.
That’s the sort of “see it now, not on streaming” word-of-mouth that theater owners are desperate for, and it is being driven by teens and Gen Z young adults with 35% of the opening weekend crowd being between the ages of 13-17.
With two more weekends until Easter and many kids on school break during that time, we will see how much of the “Minecraft” fan base is still untapped and how much appetite there is for repeat screenings from families.
With “Minecraft” accounting for around four-fifths of the overall business, the No. 2 film on this weekend’s charts was Amazon MGM’s “A Working Man” with $7.3 million in its second weekend, giving the $40 million action film a 10-day domestic total of $27.7 million.
In third is Fathom’s “The Chosen — Season 5,” releasing the next batch of episodes from the hit indie Christian series. The second of three planned releases of the show’s fifth season grossed $7.2 million this weekend, which combined with the $1 million earned from the first collection of episodes gives season 5 a running total of around $25 million. With the final episodes of the season coming next weekend, “The Chosen” will top the $31.5 million grossed from Fathom’s release of season 4 last year.
In fourth is Disney’s “Snow White,” continuing to sink with a $6 million third weekend and anemic totals of $77 million domestic and $168 million worldwide. The film has yet to even match the reported $250 million it spend on production and has become the biggest bomb in Disney’s remake series.
Universal/Blumhouse’s “The Woman in the Yard” completes the top 5 with $4.5 million in its second weekend, as the low-budget horror film will have to settle for modest profit with a $16.6 million 10-day total. It has once again beat out horror competitor “Death of a Unicorn” from A24, which grossed $2.5 million with a $10.3 million domestic total.
