The last few weeks have been dominated by weak box office, compounded by widely shared images of empty theaters for Snow White. This has all changed this weekend.
When I fulfilled my parental duty with a trip to see A Minecraft Movie this weekend, I was surprised.
Surprised that I didn’t hate it, and that the random 11:30am showing in my small provincial town was absolutely packed.
As we discussed in the Disqus, it was starting to look like this movie could make bank and WB might have a much needed hit on their hands.
So it has come to pass. A Minecraft Movie snagged $159 million domestic in its opening weekend. Globally it added about the same again, taking the total north of $300 million worldwide.
It is easily the biggest domestic debut of the year, with double the previous record holder Captain America: Brave New World.
Audience scores have outstripped some rather sniffy critical reviews, and it is looking like a four-quadrant hit.
The movie has also been tagged “Rocky Horror Show for a Gen-A” with footage being shared online of loud theaters singing along and participating in the experience.
The film has already made back more than its $150 million budget at the box office. The producers, including Jason Momoa, will be sleeping well on mattresses stuffed with cash.
A Minecraft Movie was so dominant that the second placed movie, Jason Statham’s A Working Man, scored a box office take that was 22 times lower than Minecraft.
Elsewhere at the box office, Snow White continues to be an unfolding disaster of epic proportions for Disney with just $6 million, collapsing to third place ad just narrowly beating the faith-based Chosen: The Last Supper Part 2.