‘A Minecraft Movie’ Gives The 2025 Box Office A Much-Needed Boost
Jack Black, Danielle Brooks and Jason Momoa in “A Minecraft Movie.”
Jack Black and Jason Momoa’s A Minecraft Movie is not only a blockbuster hit at the box office, it’s the sort of film that Hollywood needs to right the ship after a dismal start in 2025.
Perhaps the most positive thing to emerge from the opening weekend success of A Minecraft Movie is that it defied expectations on every level. The film’s studio, Warner Bros., projected a modest $130 million worldwide opening weekend, estimating that the film would earn $65 million domestically and $65 million internationally.
Some industry outlets were a little more generous, like Deadline, which projected a $140 million worldwide opening, and Box Office Pro, which projected an $85 million to $100 million opening weekend frame.
All three were far off the mark, as it turns out, but in a good way. When the film posted a $57 million tally on Friday, it became increasingly clear that the big-screen adaptation of Mojang Studios’ video game phenomenon was taking things, in gaming vernacular, to the next level.
It was expected that the film would make $157 million in its opening frame from 4,265 North American theaters and $144 million internationally for a worldwide tally of $301 million, but it turned out that even those projections were on the low side
When final numbers were released on Monday, A Minecraft Movie’s weekend actuals vaulted to $163 million domestically and $150.7 internationally for a worldwide gross of $313.7 million in its first three days in theaters against a $150 million production budget before prints and advertising costs.
Even before the weekend box office actuals came out, though, A Minecraft Movie had already accomplished a major feat by surpassing The Super Mario Bros. Movie’s opening weekend take of $146.3 million to become the new record holder for biggest domestic opening for a video game adaptation.
Now, it will be interesting to see whether A Minecraft Movie can develop the same sort of legs The Super Mario Bros. Movie did for the long haul at the box office. The Universal Pictures release ended its theatrical run with $574.9 million in domestic ticket sales and $784.2 million internationally for a final worldwide tally of $1.359 billion against a $100 million production budget before P&A.
Even if A Minecraft Movie doesn’t meet that threshold, the success of its opening box office weekend alone is still a big win for the movie business in 2025, which up until last Friday has been a mess.
Danny Ramierez and Anthony Mackie in “Captain America: Brave New World.”
‘A Minecraft Movie’ Gives 2025 Box Office A Much-Needed Boost After A Dismal Start
With its massive opening weekend, A Minecraft Movie is a shot of adrenaline movie theaters needed to begin the second quarter following the doldrums of the first quarter of 2025, where, per Bloomberg, the box office was down 10% from Q1 in 2024.
Before Minecraft, the turnout for major films at the box office has been middling to miserable.
‘Captain America: Brave New World’ Fell Short
The first big potential blockbuster came on Feb. 14 with the release of Captain America: Brave New World starring Anthony Mackie and Harrison Ford, the first film from Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe since Deadpool & Wolverine.
The new Captain America movie didn’t quite match the hype of Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman’s MCU Multiverse adventure, however, as it only took in $100 million domestically vs. Deadpool & Wolverine’s opening weekend frame of $211 million in late July 2024.
And while pitting the opening weekend takes of the two MCU films seems like an apples-to-oranges comparison given one opened in February and the other during normally lucrative summer movie season, behind the scenes there were some similarities. For one, Deadpool & Wolverine had a $200 million production budget before prints and advertising, which is not much more than Captain America: Brave New World’s budget of $180 million before P&A. As such, Deadline & Wolverine got a lot more bang for its buck.
Another important factor to consider is that Deadline & Wolverine is an R-rated movie, which limits the film’s potential audience because of age restrictions. Captain America: Brave New World with a PG-13 rating clearly had a better avenue for bringing in revenue with a broader potential audience.
When all is said and done, the performance of Captain America: Brave New World typifies the struggles Hollywood and theater owners have been facing at the box office in Q1. The film came in at No. 10 at last weekend’s domestic box office with $1.3 million to bring its domestic take to $199.2 million.
Along with its international take of $213.6 million, Captain America: Brave New World earned $412.8 million through Sunday, which is a pittance compared to Deadpool & Wolverine’s $636.7 domestic and $701.3 million international takes, totaling $1.3 billion globally.
Rachel Zegler in “Snow White.”
‘Snow White’ Could Be Disney’s Biggest Disappointment In 2025
While Disney’s Captain America: Brave New World failed to draw big audiences in February, it feels like it earned blockbuster numbers in comparison to the studio’s other big release in Q1, Snow White.
A live-action adaptation of Disney’s 1937 animated classic Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs starring Rachel Zegler as Snow White and Gal Gadot as the Evil Queen, the film seemed doomed to fail before it opened in theaters on March 21.
With controversies dating back more than three years — including criticisms from Zegler about the 1937 film and politically-charged social media posts about freeing Palestine and targeting President Donald Trump and his supporters — Snow White earned $42.2 million in its opening weekend domestically.
Normally that’s a healthy opening number for any film, but considering the film had a $270 million production budget before prints and advertising, the opening was considered a disaster. Making matters worse, the film’s business took a 66% dive in its second-weekend frame to earn only $14.3 domestically and pulled in less than $6 million in weekend No. 3.
The only silver lining box office-wise for Snow White, is that it was not a part of the lowest-grossing weekend for movies overall in 2025.
That happened the weekend before Disney’s princess tale hit theaters, when the Jack Quaid dark comedy thriller Novocaine led the pack with an anemic $8 million in domestic ticket sales.
Surprisingly, Novocaine’s $8 million beat out Parasite Oscar-winner Bong Joon Ho’s sci-fi comedy Mickey 17 in its second weekend of release. Budgeted at $118 million before P&A, the Robert Pattinson star vehicle stiffed in its debut in theaters with a domestic take of $19 million in its its opening weekend.
A scene from “The Minecraft Movie.”
Thanks To ‘A Minecraft Movie,’ A New Day Is Dawning At The April Box Office
Hollywood and theater owners are no doubt celebrating the success of A Minecraft Movie and have to be anticipating summer movie season is around the corner, kicking off with the release of the Disney MCU adventure Thunderbolts*.
However, there are three weekends of moviegoing left in April to help keep the momentum of A Minecraft Movie going. Opening Friday are four new high-profile films — Drop, Warfare, The Amateur and The Chosen: The Last Supper Part 3 — and while they likely won’t be a match for Jack Black and Jason Momoa’s video game adaptation, the availability of new product creates the potential of drawing audiences to theaters.
Along with the release of director Ryan Coogler’s vampire thriller Sinners starring his frequent collaborator Michael B. Jordan on April 18 — and Ben Affleck’s crime thriller The Accountant 2 and the movie adaptation of the video game Until Dawn on April 25 — the month is shaping up to be very promising for the movie business.
Of course, the ultimate success of the remainder of April at the movie theater is yet to be seen, but at least for the time being, A Minecraft Movie has restored faith in people heading out to the movies again — and that’s a great start.