UPDATE: What a story this movie has turned into. ‘Minecraft’ is now practically guaranteed to earn, at least, $163M in its domestic opening weekend. The worldwide total will be around $310M.
Who’d a thunk it? One the most popular game ever has broad appeal with movie audiences. “Minecraft” is the best-selling video game of all time, having sold over 300 million copies and maintaining nearly 170 million monthly active users as of this year. It’s now breathed some much-needed life into 2025 box office.
EARLIER: The walkups for Warner Bros’ “A Minecraft Movie” have been incredible. Call it “Moneycraft.” The film earned $53M through Friday evening, and is now being projected for an $140M opening weekend; The global tally will be around $300M.
Heartfelt congrats to Warners’ Pam Abdy and Michael De Luca who really needed a hit film; for weeks, there was speculation they would lose their positions as film heads at the studio. Maybe “Minecraft” is the lifeline they desperately needed.
That $140M opening would be bigger than “Super Mario Bros Movie.” No coincidence, ‘Minecraft’ had the same release date as ‘Super Mario.’ The success of ‘Super Mario Bros’ opened the door for Hollywood to explore an inordinate amount of potential video game movie projects. What ‘Minecraft’ represents is the banking of that promise. Other upcoming video game movie adaptations include “Street Fighter,” “The Legend of Zelda,” “The Sims” and “Death Stranding.”
Much like ‘Super Mario Bros,’ audiences aren’t paying attention to the negative reviews.These films are critic proof.
“A Minecraft Movie” has Jason Momoa entering the world of the popular video game. Joining Momoa in the cast are Jack Black, Danielle Brooks, Jennifer Coolidge, Emma Myers, and Sebastian Eugene Hansen. The trailer had racked up hundreds of millions of views — we should have seen this coming.
The film is directed by Jared Hess, best known for “Napoleon Dynamite” and “Nacho Libre.” He’s now on board in what will probably be the biggest film of his career.
UPDATE: An unfinished version of "A Minecraft Movie" has leaked online. The version, with incomplete visual effects and CGI, has now been widely pirated. It’s rare to have a working print leak online in this way, raising questions about how the film was even accessed, stolen and then shared.
While James L. Brooks teased last year that "we'll soon be seeing" Jack Nicholson, 89, act again, and that he was "reading scripts," that idea has now been shut down by his close friend Michael Douglas, 82.