Photo Credit: Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures
The box office recorded its best 3-day weekend of the year, and the strongest since Thanksgiving 2024. A Minecraft Movie’s domestic debut nearly matched the combined total of three consecutive March weekends; weekends 9 through 11 in 2025 accumulated a total of $162 million, while Minecraft took three days to compile $157 million. The surprise success helps mitigate the damage caused by poor ticket sales in March, leaving exhibitors hopeful that a box office rally can be sustained through the end of the year.
- Top Title: A Minecraft Movie (Warner Bros.) | $157M / 4,263 Screens / $36,829 PSA | Week 1
- Top Opener: A Minecraft Movie (Warner Bros.) | $157M / 4,263 Screens / $36,829 PSA | Week 1
- Best PSA: A Minecraft Movie (Warner Bros.) | $157M / 4,263 Screens / $36,829 PSA | Week 1
Warner Bros. and Legendary have a certified phenomenon on their hands with the Mojang Studios video game adaptation A Minecraft Movie, which massively over-performed with an estimated $157M in 4,263 locations for a $36,829 per-screen average, the biggest debut of 2025. It is the biggest live-action opening ever for Jack Black, besting Jumanji: The Next Level ($59.25M), as well as his biggest overall, including animation. Also the biggest debut for Jason Momoa, with Justice League ($93.8M) a distant second. Minecraft generated the largest opening for a single film since Deadpool & Wolverine last July ($211.4M). With numbers this big, it might even be possible for Minecraft to close in on or surpass Barbie‘s $162M opening if Sunday walk-ups drive better business than expected.
“The movie played everywhere—small towns, mid-sized towns, large markets..in theaters that are high profile, medium profile, and low profile—all around the globe,” Jeff Goldstein, president of global theatrical distribution at Warner Bros, told Boxoffice Pro on Sunday. “We loaded the campaign so that when you get down to the last few days, we can make a moment and catch lightning in a bottle. That’s hard to do, but if you figure it out with the right types of materials, when you release them, what that cadence looks like—all of a sudden, you can take off. And that’s exactly what happened here. It just took off.”
Here’s how the 3-Day looked, including $10.55M in Thursday previews. That Saturday also represents the studio’s best Saturday ever, beating Barbie‘s $48M, and accomplishing the rare feat of topping the combined Thursday and Friday grosses over its opening weekend…
- Friday – $58M
- Saturday – $60M
- Sunday – $39M
Minecraft handily overtook the record for a video game movie debut set by 2023’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie (also featuring Jack Black) with $146.36M. Prior to Minecraft, these were the rest of the Top 5 game-based weekends of all-time…
- 2. The Super Mario Bros. Movie – $92.3M Frame 2 ($574.9M domestic)
- 3. Five Nights at Freddy’s – $80M ($137.27M domestic)
- 4. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 – $72.1M ($190.87M domestic)
- 5. Sonic the Hedgehog 3 -$60.1M ($236.1M domestic)
The Top 3 highest-grossing video game movies worldwide are The Super Mario Bros. Movie ($1.359B), Sonic the Hedgehog 3 ($490.69M), and Warcraft ($438.89M). Minecraft should be nipping at the heels of (if not surpassing) the latter two by next week. Both unkind critics (49% on RT) and the untimely leak of a workprint version of A Minecraft Movie had zero effect on audiences, who gave the film an 87% audience score and a “B+” CinemaScore, with under-25’s (i.e. the target demo) rating the movie with an “A” grade. PostTrak 4 out of 5 stars, with parents giving the film a 4½ and kids delivering a perfect 5 stars.
Here’s how demographics looked…
- 55% Caucasian
- 25% Hispanic
- 9% African-American
- 6% Native-American/Other.
- 5% Asian
An estimated 41% of business came from PLFs, including a 13% share from 3D screens and $12.8M from 406 IMAX screens, the biggest ever domestic IMAX opening weekend for a live-action family title.
A Minecraft Movie – Opening Weekend
Top Ten Locations – North America
1. Regal Irvine Spectrum Los Angeles2. AMC Garden State Plaza New York3. Cineplex Laval Montreal4. Regal Riverpark Fresno 5. Regal Edwards Temecula6. Regal Warren Moore Oklahoma City7. AMC Burbank8. Cineplex Odeon Brossard Montreal9. Cineplex Scotiabank Winnipeg
10. Landmark Kanata Ottawa
A Minecraft Movie – Opening Weekend
Top Ten DMAs – North America
1. Los Angeles2. New York3. Dallas4. Chicago5. Houston6. San Francisco7. Phoenix8. Philadelphia9. Salt Lake City
10. Toronto
Overseas, A Minecraft Movie nearly matched its domestic performance with $144M on 40,300 screens in 75 markets for a global total of $ 301 M. IMAX screens account for $6.6M of the international total. Top 3 markets are the UK ($19.9M), China ($14.5M), and Mexico ($11.2M). There are still three more major openings in the coming weeks, including Indonesia (April 9), Japan (April 25), and Korea (April 30).
A Minecraft Movie – Opening Weekend
Top Ten Overseas Markets
- UK/Ireland | $19.9M
- China | $14.5M
- Mexico | $11.2M
- Germany | $10.6M
- Australia | $8.3M
- Poland | $6.2M
- Brazil | $5.8M
- Spain | $5.6M
- France | $5.6M
- Italy | $5.3M
As with Barbie, Warner Bros. allowed the Minecraft filmmakers to craft something odd and colorful utilizing a known property, and the final product has hit the zeitgeist in a big way. Theaters leaned in with lobby activations, including a Minecraft-themed 4DX auditorium at one Kinepolis Antwerp location. Sour reviews might curb future weekends slightly, but this kind of momentum is hard to curtail, especially when the target audience appears to really dig it. We’ll see how much of this was front-loaded fan fever next frame, with the runway clear for younger audiences until Thunderbolts* in May. Whatever happens, both studio and theaters are very happy right now, especially the latter with year-over-year over 50% above this frame in 2024.
Fathom Entertainment’s release of The Chosen: Last Supper – Part 2 came in at #3 with $6.7M on 2,296 screens, a little more than half what Part 1 did last weekend ($11.8M) in 2,478 locations. Meanwhile, Last Supper – Part 1 is now the biggest earning theatrical release in the Chosen franchise, adding $1.86M to its tally this weekend for a total of $17.9M, breaking the record set by The Chosen Season 3: Episodes 1 & 2 ($14.67M). It is now the 20th highest-grossing film based on a religious text. With Part 3 arriving next week, binge-watching of all three chapters comprising 1-8 of Season 5 could bring box office spikes for the whole trilogy as Easter approaches. All Chosen releases to date have made around $95M theatrically on top of any streaming revenue.
Co-written/directed/starring Stranger Things‘ Finn Wolfhard and his Ghostbusters: Afterlife co-star Billy Bryk, Neon’s Hell of a Summer debuted to $1.75M at 1,255 locations for a PSA of $1,394. The horror-comedy received largely negative reviews (48% on RT) and a poor audience score (53%).
Minecraft should easily lead the box office in its sophomore frame. It will be joined by five new wide-release titles that will help sustain momentum by giving repeat moviegoers their choice of titles. A24’s adult-skewing Warfare from Alex Garland and his Civil War collaborator Ray Mendoza, 20th Century Studios’ action-thriller The Amateur headlined by Rami Malek, Universal’s high-concept horror thriller Drop, the third part of Fathom Entertainment’s Chosen series, and Angel Studios’ faith-based animated family film The King of Kings.
Title Weekend Estimate % Change Locations Location Change PSA Domestic Total Week Distributor A Minecraft Movie $157,000,000 4,263 $36,829 157,000,000 1 Warner Bros. A Working Man $7,276,905 -53% 3,262 n/c $2,231 27,817,000 2 Amazon MGM S… The Chosen: Last Supper — Part 2 $6,701,939 2,296 $2,919 6,701,939 1 Fathom Entertainment Disney’s Snow White $6,087,000 -58% 3,750 -450 $1,623 77,462,470 3 Walt Disney The Woman in the Yard $4,500,000 -52% 2,845 3 $1,582 16,667,000 2 Universal Death of a Unicorn $2,696,929 -53% 2,995 -55 $900 10,783,272 2 A24 The Chosen: Last Supper — Part 1 $1,868,870 -84% 1,591 -887 $1,175 17,915,708 2 Fathom Entertainment Hell of a Summer $1,750,000 1,255 $1,394 1,750,000 1 Neon The Friend $1,617,415 +2,292 1,237 +1,235 $1,308 1,696,365 2 Bleecker Street Captain America: Brave New World $1,393,000 -52% 1,750 -630 $796 199,120,479 8 Walt Disney Black Bag $950,000 -57% 811 -1,254 $1,171 20,657,000 4 Focus Features Mickey 17 $765,000 -60% 643 -1,005 $1,190 45,208,000 5 Warner Bros. Princess Mononoke $617,342 -84% 630 300 $980 16,874,607 1,328 Miramax The Penguin Lessons $400,000 -66% 683 -334 $586 2,213,000 2 Sony Picture… The Luckiest Man in America $282,000 659 $428 282,000 1 IFC Films Novocaine $280,000 -81% 514 -1,759 $545 19,754,000 4 Paramount Pi… Paddington in Peru $255,000 -64% 402 -500 $634 45,619,000 8 Sony Pictures Dog Man $206,000 -76% 545 -526 $378 97,802,000 10 Universal The Ballad of Wallis Island $200,000 112% 41 37 $4,878 323,000 2 Focus Features A Nice Indian Boy $176,000 81 $2,173 176,000 1 Blue Harbor The Monkey $158,000 -77% 234 -561 $675 39,527,322 7 Neon The Encampments $110,477 45% 46 45 $2,402 221,060 2 Watermelon P… Mufasa: The Lion King $54,000 -81% 150 -270 $360 254,542,884 16 Walt Disney Last Breath $33,000 -81% 107 -330 $308 21,040,000 6 Focus Features Misericordia $22,400 -40% 21 -1 $1,067 115,091 3 Janus Films Eephus $18,000 -72% 27 -36 $667 451,172 5 Music Box Films Gazer $13,900 1 $13,900 13,900 1 Metrograph P… Moana 2 $9,000 -44% 30 -25 $300 460,405,068 19 Walt Disney A Complete Unknown $8,000 -53% 20 -25 $400 74,985,894 15 Searchlight … When Fall is Coming 6,000 1 $6,000 6,000 1 Music Box Films
Photo Credit: Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures
