A Minecraft Movie Blasts Off With Bigger-Than-Mario Opening, Becomes Biggest All-Time For A Video Game Movie
[UPDATE 2] A Minecraft Movie shattered expectations and nabbed $157 million in the US for its opening weekend and a total of $301 million worldwide. That’s the biggest opening weekend of all time for a video game movie, outpacing even The Super Mario Bros. Movie. That film ended its run with $1.3 billion worldwide, so it’ll be interesting to see how A Minecraft Movie stacks up when it completes its theatrical run. Early projections for A Minecraft Movie said it might make about $60 million in the US for its opening weekend, so these results are well ahead of expectations.
“We’re absolutely overjoyed A Minecraft Movie has been so warmly received by audiences around the world and extend our congratulations to Jared Hess and his filmmaking team, Legendary, Vertigo, Mojang, and our phenomenal cast led by Jason Momoa, Jack Black, Emma Myers, Sebastian Hansen, Danielle Brooks, and Jennifer Coolidge who helped make the film a must-see event for moviegoers of all ages,” Warner Bros. bosses Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy said in a statement to Deadline.
After just three days, A Minecraft Movie is now the No. 12 highest-grossing video game movie of all time.
[UPDATE] A Minecraft Movie pulled in $57 million in the US for its first Friday–that’s the most money for any video game movie on its first Friday ever. It’s even higher than The Super Mario Bros. Movie’s first Friday ($54.8 million). However, it’s not exactly a fair comparison, since The Super Mario Bros. Movie opened on a Wednesday back in 2023.
In any event, Deadline reports that A Minecraft Movie could make $145 million over its first weekend in the US–counting Friday, Saturday, and Sunday–this would compare to $146.3 million for The Super Mario Bros. Movie’s Friday, Saturday, and Sunday combined haul in 2023. But again, The Super Mario Bros. Movie actually released on a Wednesday.
Only three previous movies in history that opened in April had a bigger Friday than A Minecraft Movie in the US–these include Avengers: Endgame ($157.4 million), Avengers: Infinity War ($106.3 million), and Furious 7 ($67.4 million).
Keep checking back with GameSpot for more on the performance of A Minecraft Movie at the box office.
The original story follows below.
The first box-office numbers for A Minecraft Movie have arrived, with the Warner Bros. video game movie bringing in $10.55 million at the domestic box office for its Thursday previews.
For comparison, the video game movie Five Nights at Freddy’s made $10.3 million in the US for its previews, while The Super Mario Bros. Movie brought in $26.5 million.
Variety supplied the numbers, and added that A Minecraft Movie is projected to earn between $70 million-$80 million for its opening weekend in the US. For its part, Warner Bros. is penciling in a a more conservative projection of $65 million. Some estimates, Variety said, peg A Minecraft Movie at $90 million for its first weekend.
Another point of comparison is Sonic the Hedgehog 3, which made $60 million in the US for its opening weekend, going on to bring in $236 million stateside and $255 million from international markets for a total of $491 million globally.
Globally, box-office estimates suggest A Minecraft Movie could make as much as $150 million over its first weekend. The movie carried a production cost of $150 million, with many millions upon millions more spent on marketing. Despite those hefty costs, Variety said A Minecraft Movie is poised to become a financial success. This would be good news for Warner Bros., as the company’s recent releases, Mickey 17 and The Alto Knights, failed to perform up to expectations.
A Minecraft Movie stars Jack Black, Jason Momoa, Daniella Brooks, Sebastian Hansen, and Emmy Myers. It’s directed by Napoleon Dynamite’s Jared Hess.
Like some of Hess’ other movies, A Minecraft Movie is getting mixed reviews from critics. It has a 47 score on GameSpot sister site Metacritic and 49% on Rotten Tomatoes. GameSpot’s A Minecraft Movie review scored the film a 7/10. Reviewer Chris Hayner said, “As you sit down in theaters this weekend, it’s time to let your sense of childhood wonderment take over for a little while. I don’t think you’ll regret it.”
