This year has gotten off to a terrible first quarter, as laggard tentpoles like “Snow White” have not delivered and more mature titles like “Mickey 17” and “Black Bag” haven’t provided enough support. That leaves it to Warner Bros./Legendary’s “A Minecraft Movie” to provide some form of respite to theaters still waiting for the robust spring business they are used to.
The good news is that, at least for this weekend, it looks like they could get it. Pre-release projections are coming in at $70 million, with Warner keeping its projections slightly more conservative at $65 million. Exhibitors who spoke to TheWrap are very optimistic about the film and see a possible start of $80 million.
If it reaches that optimistic level, “Minecraft” would open on the same level as last year’s “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire,” one of two Legendary titles alongside “Dune: Part Two” that provided a high baseline for the box office in March 2024 and which were missing in the past month.
The question is whether “Minecraft” has enough fans interested enough to see a movie beyond opening weekend despite lacking the built-in cast of fan-favorite characters that has supported other video game movie series like “Mario,” “Sonic the Hedgehog,” or even “Five Nights at Freddy’s” which was a very frontloaded release in October 2023 but still grossed $137 million domestic and $291 million worldwide.
First released in 2009, the video game “Minecraft” earned a global following for its free-ranging sandbox survival gameplay and for its passionate community of players who have used its creative mode as a digital Lego set, creating massive sculptures and buildings with the game’s pixelated blocks. While some of the game’s foes like the infamous Creepers have become popular with fans, there are no characters from a narrative sense to port over to the film.
In place of any story to adapt, “A Minecraft Movie” pulls a page from the recent “Jumanji” revival films, following four misfits who get pulled into the game’s Overworld and must use their imagination to find a way out with the help of Steve, played by Jack Black, an expert crafter modeled after the player character from the game.
As the trailer has shown, much of the film involves Black invoking the different items, abilities and creatures from “Minecraft,” all of which have been transformed from the pixelated designs of the game into CGI block creatures with realistic textures. While the film’s review embargo has not dropped as of writing, that’s probably not going to impress critics.
Of course, as “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” proved, the critics don’t matter on films like this. What matters is whether the families and fans like the ones that turned out for “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” a few months ago are won over by the horde of references that are sure to come.