"A Minecraft Movie" notches another win for video game adaptations

If life is a sandbox, A Minecraft Movie is king of its cube-shaped castle. The video game adaptation earned $157 million at the domestic box office in its opening weekend, making it not only the biggest domestic debut of the year but also the best in history for a video game adaptation.

Secrets of the ‘craft

The formula for outselling the most bullish of analysts' projections by ~75%:

• Youth appeal: ~43% of Minecraft ticket buyers were ages 18 to 24, while children ages 13 to 17 came in at ~35%, according to PostTrak.
• Lots of marketing: The promotional campaign was the largest third-party campaign in Warner Bros. history (even bigger than Barbie). The film’s team worked with 45 brands, including McDonald’s, Doritos, Oreo, and Poppi Soda.
• Popular nostalgia: Minecraft is the best-selling video game of all time, with 300+ million copies sold worldwide since its 2011 release.

Big picture: Video game-based films have proven popular in recent years, with The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Five Nights at Freddy’s, Uncharted, and the Sonic the Hedgehog movies all scoring big at the box office. In 2023, video game adaptations even gave superhero adaptations a run for their money, earning $712 million domestically vs. $1 billion for comic book movies.