‘A Minecraft Movie’ opens with $301M at international box office

This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows, from left, Jack Black, Jason Momoa and Sebastian Hansen in a scene from “A Minecraft Movie.” (Warner Bros. Pictures via AP)

“A Minecraft Movie” is the biggest movie to open this weekend, scoring the second highest international opening ever for a video game movie adaptation.

Hollywood needed “A Minecraft Movie” to be a hit, and it delivered in its opening weekend, significantly narrowing this year’s box office deficit.

The Jared Hess-directed film, based on the best-selling video game of all time, took in a whopping $301 million at the global box office on its first few days in cinemas. In the Philippines, it opened at No. 1, and did very well in other overseas markets too, including the United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, Mexico and China. It’s a certified hit in the United States as well.

Audiences love “A Minecraft Movie,” giving it a B+ CinemaScore. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an audience rating of 87%.

No one guessed just how big it would be. In its first few days in theaters, the movie earned a staggering $157 million in ticket sales from theaters in the U.S. and Canada, according to studio estimates Sunday.

Internationally, it’s looking at an additional $144 million for a global debut of $301 million. And with school spring breaks ongoing, “A Minecraft Movie” is just getting started.

“We’re just thrilled that audiences are responding and that everyone’s going to the theater,” said Pamela Abdy, the co-chair and CEO of the Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group.

Not only is it the biggest opening of 2025, “A Minecraft Movie” also broke the record for a video game adaptation, a distinction previously held by “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” ($146 million). Going into the weekend, analysts projected “Minecraft” might hit $80 million. Instead, it nearly doubled that figure.

“You can’t underestimate the value of earnest, entertaining, joyous cinema,” said Michael DeLuca, also co-chair and CEO. “People really want an escape, especially when it involves the whole family.”

Nothing is guaranteed in the movie business, but an offering based on the best-selling video game of all time makes for a good start. It hardly mattered that the block-based game doesn’t exactly have a narrative. Many of its 200 million active monthly players turned out in droves anyway.

DeLuca said it’s one of the “broadest playing movies” they’ve ever seen, meaning it’s working in all sizes of cinemas all over the world.

(From left) Emma Myers as Natalie, Danielle Brooks as Dawn, Sebastian Eugene Hansen as Henry, and Jason Momoa as Garrett, in #MinecraftMovie, now showing in cinemas.
Image from Warner Bros. Pictures

The PG-rated movie, directed by Jared Hess (“Napoleon Dynamite”), was a co-production of Legendary Entertainment and Warner Bros. It cost a reported $150 million to make, not including marketing and promotion expenses. Jack Black and Jason Momoa lead the ensemble cast (Danielle Brooks, Emma Myers and Sebastian Eugene Hansen). Their characters are transported into an imaginative dimension called the Overworld and need to go on a dangerous, and immensely silly, adventure to get home.

Momoa, who also produces the movie, said, “I think it’s my first movie I’ve ever done like this – a live-action movie where it’s going into any world like this, big or small, but it just happened to be the biggest one in history. It was my first, and it’s amazing.”

Black also said, “I can feel it out there, all of the Minecrafters that are excited about this movie. I think there’s a lot of people out there who can’t believe it’s really happening, that it’s really real. I could feel it when I posted about it, that, ‘Oh, I’m gonna be in Minecraft’ post where I just did a photograph of me reading a Minecraft for Dummies book, and it got millions of likes, and it was, ‘Oh, it’s bubbling out there.’ It’s a phenomenon; this game has been loved by millions and millions all over the world for years now, and I think this movie is a big deal for a lot of people, because now it’s generational. There’s kids who have grown up and are out in the world working and living and have families of their own. It’s been that long that the game has been part of our world, so it’ll be cool to finally bring that universe into cinemas.”

“We made the movie for the fans and the fans exceeded our expectations,” DeLuca said.

Critics were largely mixed on “A Minecraft Movie,” but audiences gave it a more promising B+ CinemaScore and 4/5 stars in PostTrak exit polls. Men made up around 62% of the audience, and 64% were under the age of 25. Warner Bros. went big on its release, opening the film in 4,263 locations domestically and 36,000 screens internationally.

“Younger audiences love going to the movie theater, believe it or not,” said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore. “This is the perfect small screen to big screen alliance. It became a must-see theatrical event. Awareness was off the charts.”

Video game adaptations have had some pivotal successes in recent years, including “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” the “Sonic” series and “Five Nights at Freddy’s.”

“Video games were once a genre that had very mixed results at the box office, but the code has finally been cracked,” Dergarabedian said.

Second place at this week’s box office went to the Jason Statham action pic “A Working Man,” which added $7.3 million in its second weekend. Third place was occupied by the second installment in the episodic “The Chosen: Last Supper” series. Part two (made up of episodes three through five) earned $7 million over the weekend. The third and final batch of episodes arrive in theaters on April 11.

“Snow White” slid to fourth place in its third weekend, bringing in $6.1 million. It’s now made over $168 million globally.

It’s been a difficult start to 2025 for Hollywood and movie theaters, with disappointments including “Snow White” and “Mickey 17.” But one hit can change the tides significantly, especially with in-theater marketing pushes in full swing for the pivotal summer movie season, which kicks off the first weekend in May.

Before this weekend, the box office was running at a 13% deficit compared with last year. Now the gap is down to 5%.

Top 10 movies by domestic box office

With final domestic figures being released Monday, this list factors in the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore:

1. “A Minecraft Movie,” $157 million.
2. “A Working Man,” $7.3 million.
3. “The Chosen: Last Supper – Part 2,” $7 million.
4. “Snow White,” $6.1 million.
5. “The Woman in the Yard,” $4.5 million.
6. “Death of a Unicorn,” $2.7 million
7. “The Chosen: Last Supper – Part 1,” $1.9 million.
8. “Hell of a Summer,” $1.8 million.
9. “The Friend,” $1.6 million.
10. “Captain America: Brave New World,” $1.4 million.