CNN
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The adaptation of the 2011 “Minecraft” video game broke box office estimates, raising US $ 157 million in the US and marking the most important premiere weekend of the year.
Industry analysts initially screened that “to Minecraft Movie” by Warner Bros. Pictures would raise US $ 60 million, before adjusting that estimate to about US $ 100 million. Warner Brothers Discovery is the parent company of CNN.
“This is the first great superior performance,” said Paul Dergarabedian, a senior media analyst at CNN. “Minecraft Movie” far exceeded the weekend of “Captain America: a happy world” by Disney, which had been the highest grossing premiere of 2025 with a collection of US $ 88.5 million in its first weekend.
“Pre -ses and interest shot markedly during the period prior to the premiere,” said Shawn Robbins, director of Fandango cinematographic analysis and founder of Box Office Theory, CNN in an email. Robbins said that many university students and adolescents were on spring vacation during the premiere, which also benefited some markets.
Conservative box office estimates for “Minecraft Movie” were probably due to the reactions found to trailers. However, this adaptation of the video game attracts a broad audience, not criticism, according to box office analyst David A. Gross, from Franchisere.
“When a launch sweeps like this, it generates its own impulse and all projections can be set aside,” said Gross.
Video game films are an increasingly popular genre, from “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” by Universal Pictures, which premiered with US $ 146 million in April 2023, until the debut in October 2023 of “Five Night At Freddy’s” (US $ 80 million) and “Sonic The Hedgehog 2” of Paramount Pictures (US $ 72 million) in April 2022. “To Minecraft Movie” is now the weekend of national premiere for a movie based on a video game, according to Comscore.
“There is a Trector of Storytelling and (intellectual property) in that area, which makes it an ideal point where the industry can connect with young cynphiles and the general public that has become more selective,” Robbins said.
Video game adaptations had better performance when they were classified as PG, according to Dergarabedian, who said that PG classification movies surpassed PG-13 films last year.
The premiere weekend of “Minecraft Movie” was a very necessary impulse for the general box office. Industry profits dropped 5 % in 2025, but they had fallen13 % before the premiere of “to Minecraft Movie”, according to Comscore.
Robbins described the first quarter of 2025 as a “historically slow film season.” Although March 2024 had important premieres, such as “Dune: Part two” and “Kung Fu Panda 4”, the first quarter of 2025 was free of large box office successes.
There is optimism in the industry for a second trimester with “Thunderbolts” by Disney, a Marvel film, which will be released on May 2, followed by “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” by Paramount (May 23) and “F1” by Warner Bros. (June 27).
“We will finally see the light at the end of the tunnel after a quite discouraging March,” said Dergarabedian.
