Jack Black, Jason Momoa, and Sebastian Hansen as seen in Warner Bros. and Legendary Entertainment’s “A Minecraft Movie.”
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Warner Bros.’ struck gold over the weekend.
“A Minecraft Movie,” the studio’s co-production with Legendary Entertainment, snapped up $163 million at the domestic box office during its debut.
The movie not only set a record for the highest-opening video game adaption, surpassing Universal’s “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” but it also gave a much needed jolt to the domestic box office.
“Generations Z and Alpha came to the rescue of an historically weak first quarter at the box office,” said Shawn Robbins, director of analytics at Fandango and founder of Box Office Theory. “The film is another bellwether highlighting where studios and theaters can meet today’s young and family moviegoing audience looking for fresh, familiar, and accessible blockbuster content.”
“Minecraft” fueled Cinemark’s all-time domestic box-office record for a three-day family film opening and tallied $22 million at the global box office for premium screen company IMAX, the largest haul since “Deadpool & Wolverine” opened last July.
“This was a total game changer that took the year-to-date box office deficit from 13% heading into the weekend to just 5% coming out of the weekend,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore.
Through the first three months of the year, the domestic box office has snared $1.4 billion in ticket sales, about 12% shy of the $1.65 billion collected during the same period last year, according to data from Comscore.
Disney and Marvel’s “Captain America: Brave New World” stands as the highest-grossing title so far in 2025, generating just under $200 million in ticket sales. Meanwhile Universal’s “Dog Man” has tallied $97 million and Disney’s live-action “Snow White” stands at around $77 million.
The first quarter of the year was propped up by 2024 titles like “Mufasa: The Lion King,” “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” and “Moana 2.”
“The upside surprise from ‘A Minecraft Movie’ provided a great way to kick off the first weekend of 2Q and reclaim a lot of ground that was lost in 1Q,” Eric Handler, analyst at Roth, wrote in a research note to investors Monday.
The strong opening for “Minecraft” bodes well for a second quarter that is packed with blockbuster IP.
“This now sets the stage for a big comeback for theaters which will create momentum, moving forward and with multiple notable films set for April leading up to the beginning of the summer movie season,” said Dergarabedian.
Disney and Marvel’s “Thunderbolts*” officially kicks off the summer season and is followed by Paramount’s “Mission Impossible — The Final Reckoning,” Disney’s live-action “Lilo and Stitch,” Universal’s live-action “How to Train Your Dragon,” Universal’s “Jurassic World Rebirth,” Warner Bros.’ “Superman” and Marvel’s “The Fantastic Four: First Steps.”
“On an absolute basis, we believe the quarter has good depth with upward of nine movies capable of surpassing $100 million versus only four movies last year surpassing that level,” Handler wrote.
Correction: Eric Handler is an analyst at Roth. An earlier version misstated his name.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC. Comcast also owns Fandango.
