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The Minecraft Movie tops $825 million heading into the weekend, building on its huge lead as 2025’s biggest blockbuster ahead of summer movie season.
Jack Black stars in “The Minecraft Movie.”
Source: Wētā FX
Minecraft Shakes Its Money-Maker
With a fourth weekend worldwide gross north of $60 million, including about $38 million internationally and nearly $23 million domestic, Minecraft is eyeing a fifth weekend global haul of $25-30 million and a running total likely north of $850 million.
The Minecraft Movie enjoyed much early fanfare and even some cultural controversy over audience-participation trends making a mess of screening rooms, sneaking live animals into theaters, and generally acting like attendees of a Rocky Horror Picture Show cult-classic screening.
But since that rowdy early period, things seem to have calmed quickly and considerably, with Minecraft quickly losing headlines to Sinners’ upset opening weekend victory and continued huge weekend grosses in a packed second weekend.
Indeed, Sinners deserves all of the attention it’s getting and more, as does Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith for its own surprise second-place finish last weekend, and The Accountant 2 for delivering at the higher end of estimates despite the rest of the top-tier weekend box office performers all enjoying stronger than expected showings.
However, The Minecraft Movie’s quieter presence in the weekend headlines doesn’t mean it’s lost a step at the box office. Holding steady at #5 after a month into release, with such an impressive fourth-weekend cume, speaks volumes about Minecraft’s brand popularity, Warner’s marketing of the film, and the work that went into making it more than simply a cheap cash-in on a brand name.
A huge part of the film’s success is due to the way the Wētā FX team – including VFX Supervisor Sheldon Stopsack and Animation Supervisor Kevin Estey – adapted the world of the game and its characters faithfully yet in a way that translates well into a feature film alongside live-action performances and sets.
Estey explained, “Regardless of their individuality, one challenge remained constant: to balance the stylized world of Minecraft with a realistic approach that could be convincing when introducing human actors into the world. Everything had to be real enough to be believed, but not so real that it lost connection with the aesthetic game. This was always on our mind and guided us throughout production.”
That can be a tough balance, keeping fans of the game and mainstream audiences all happy. Part of that balance includes tone and pacing, which I feel work strongly in The Minecraft Movie’s favor as another example of both the game and film sharing a core element that drives popularity.
Stopsack points to this as a significant reason the film works, telling me, “To me, the sheep represents everything this movie stands for. It’s goofy, fun, and innocent, not taking itself too seriously. Yet, it is incredibly well-thought-out and carefully crafted. A large portion of this movie’s success is due to the particular and smart humour that Jared brought to it. For me, the sheep embodies all of that.”
I’ve got a series of articles coming up full of details about Wētā’s work on The Minecraft Movie, so be sure to watch for that this weekend and next week.
The combination of factors are strong enough, in fact, that as an aside I can’t help wondering what would’ve happened if Warner made a swap and Superman opened in early-April while The Minecraft Movie took the July 11th date instead. Might Superman have stood a better chance of breakout success without as much like-minded competition, while Minecraft still offered a stand-out viewing experience and all of the same powerful base of support and built-in fandom.
Nevertheless, Minecraft is dominating the spring release frame easily and should manage to hold well next weekend when Thunderbolts* kicks off the summer movie season with a probable $80 million domestic bow and north of $100 million overseas, for what I expect could be a $200 million worldwide MCU opening if audience word-of-mouth is as positive as critical reviews.
I suspect The Minecraft Movie will hold onto its lead as 2025’s highest-grossing film until Jurassic World: Rebirth has been out a couple of weeks or so. As I explained in my summer movie analysis and predictions, there are only a few other summer filmscapable of challenging Minecraft’s and Rebirth’s likely eventual totals.
If those films – Fantastic Four: First Steps and maybe Superman or Thunderbolts* – play where I expect, lower than $1 billion and closer to $900 million or less, then The Minecraft Movie should keep its 2025 second-place ranking all the way through holiday season in December.
The Minecraft Movie put together a fun, funny, exciting family experience that could beat my bullish expectations and top $900 million by the end of its run. Summer has arrived and kids are out of school, and as we all know, if you build it they will come.
