The new Minecraft movie is minting gold at the box office.
The family-friendly movie earned a huge $58 million on Friday — including a record $10.6 million in previews — putting it on course for a domestic debut of $135 million or more.
Not only would that mark the biggest opening of the year to date, but it would also mark one of the top starts ever for a video game adaptation. The Super Mario Bros. Movie, released in early April 2023, presently wears the domestic crown with $146.4 million. (Some rival studios show Minecraft doing as much as $150 million.)
The high-wattage ensemble pic is coming in well ahead of expectations and couldn’t have come at a better time. The 2025 box office has seen its fortunes fall off dramatically in recent weeks. Minecraft could prove to be the shot of confidence Hollywood studios and cinema owners need after recent films, including Disney’s Snow White, transformed into major disappointments.
Jason Momoa, Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge and Danielle Brooks star in A Minecraft Movie, as well as Emma Myers and Sebastian Eugene Hansen. Many were in attendance for the film’s world premiere in London last weekend, helping to explain why they didn’t attend Warner Bros. CinemaCon presentation this week amid rampant speculation that Warner Bros. Discovery chief David Zaslav is looking to replace movie studio heads Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy.
Minecraft is certainly a win for the duo and the studio at large. Still, Legendary’s Mary Parent helped develop and guide the movie creatively, including tapping Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite, Nacho Libre) to direct. Parent is widely recognized for her ability to handle big IP.
The movie, based on the video game of the same name, centers around four misfits who are suddenly pulled through a mysterious portal into a bizarre, cubic wonderland that thrives on imagination. To get back home, they must master their new reality’s quirks while embarking on a quest with an unexpected, expert crafter, as Black steps into the shoes of the iconic character Steve.
Minecraft opens day-and-date around the world. As of Friday, its global haul was already north of $100 million. While most Hollywood event pics flame out quickly in China, that’s not the case for this film. Legendary East, which is distributing the pic in the Middle Kingdom, is reporting impressive grosses for Minecraft, which is topping the chart with earnings north of $62 million in its first two days. At this pace, it is the biggest Hollywood title of 2025.
