Summary
Everyone with a semblance of a brain figuredA Minecraft Moviewould probably be a successful venture for Warner Bros. Pictures. That being said, even the company itself didn’t see this kind of box office return coming.
Since its public alpha build first hit the internet in May 2009,Minecrafthas taken the gaming world by storm. Five years after that initial launch, Microsoft purchased Mojang—the Swedish development studio behind the game’s creation—and theMinecraftIP for an eye-watering $2.5 billion. If anything, that has proven to be a minuscule amount of money as recent reports have stated that 170 million people play the game each month. The sandbox survival/creation game is the best-selling video game of all time and has spawned a multimedia franchise that features everything from other video games (likeMinecraft DungeonsandMinecraft Legends) to lunch boxes and actual LEGO sets. Though it took Warner Bros. over a decade to getA Minecraft Storythrough production hell and into theatres, their big bet on the franchise has clearly paid off.
According to reporting fromDeadline,A Minecraft Movieis officially on pace to set a new record as the largest box office opening for a video game adaptation ever. The entertainment news outfit is estimating a $157 million haul forA Minecraft Movieover its first three days, which would topThe Super Mario Bros. Movie’s $146.3 million gross over the same time period by almost $10 million. To be fair,Mariodebuted on a Wednesday instead of a Friday, which undoubtedly hurt its overall total. Still, forA Minecraft Movieto come out of the gates this hot is pretty astonishing.
A Minecraft MovieIs A Major Hit For Warner Bros. Pictures At Just The Right Time
If that United States launch wasn’t exciting enough,The Hollywood Reporterclaims that the film has earned another $144 million from overseas theatres, bringing the worldwide weekend total up to $301 million. Taking traditional Hollywood accounting practices into account (i.e., production budget x 2), any moneyA Minecraft Moviebrings in from now on is pure profit, considering it cost $150 million to make. This is exactly the kind of news Warner Bros. needs after their biggest film last year,Joker: Folie à Deux,crashed and burned at the box office, and their biggest film of this year so far,Mickey 17, didn’t exactly rake in a whole bunch of money either.
A Minecraft Moviehasn’t exactly reviewed well with critics, either, sitting at a 49% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 47 score on Metacritic. Of course, none of that matters to the hordes of children having the time of their lives in theatres across the globe. Social media is filled with clips of kid-packed screenings, seeming more like a live concert than a film showing. To be clear, this is a great thing and is probably the ideal way to view the movie: with a whole mess of people who are genuinely excited about its existence. If they’re actually heading to brick-and-mortar film screenings and having a good time, then the kids are gonna be alright.
