Monday Update
Warner Bros.’ A Minecraft Movie came in over Sunday estimates, finishing its opening weekend with a confirmed global bow of $313.7M. The movie brought in $163M from North America, beating out the opening weekend of Warner Bros.’ 2023 smash hit, Barbie. Overseas figures also came in higher than estimated on Monday, totalling $150.7M.
Key Takeaways
Total Weekend Gross:
$195,963,415 | +152% Last Week / +129% Weekend 14, 2024
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
Highlights From the Weekend
1. A Minecraft Movie
Warner Bros. | NEW
$157M Domestic Opening Weekend | $301M Global Total
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 Angeles
2. AMC Garden State Plaza New York
3. Cineplex Laval Montreal
4. Regal Riverpark Fresno
5. Regal Edwards Temecula
6. Regal Warren Moore Oklahoma City
7. AMC Burbank
8. Cineplex Odeon Brossard Montreal
9. Cineplex Scotiabank Winnipeg
10. Landmark Kanata Ottawa
A Minecraft Movie – Opening Weekend
Top Ten DMAs – North America
1. Los Angeles
2. New York
3. Dallas
4. Chicago
5. Houston
6. San Francisco
7. Phoenix
8. Philadelphia
9. 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.
Other Notable Performances
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%).
Next Weekend
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.
Sunday Studio Estimates | Weekend 14 – 2025
Total 3-Day Domestic Gross: $195,963,415 | (+56.4% vs 2024)
| 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 |
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