2 weeks Ago By Jeremy Thomas
A Minecraft Movie blew away all expectations as it dominated its way to a $157 million opening this weekend. Warner Bros. video game adaptation scored the highest opening weekend ever for a video game adaptation, topping the $146.
4 million start for The Super Mario Bros. Movie back in April of 2023. It’s a massive jolt to a box office that has desperately needed a savior and marks the best opening weekend for any film since Deadpool & Wolverine opened to $211.
4 million back in July of last year. It can’t be overstated how huge of an overperformance this is. Coming into the weekend, Minecraft was expected by most to open in the $65 million range.
Some extremely optimistic analysts were looking at maybe crossing the $100 mark. Instead, it grossed more just in terms of domestic box office than the $140 million it was hoping for worldwide. Obviously, this is a massive win not only for the struggling box office but for Warner Bros.
Pictures who have had a lackluster 2025 thus far. People obviously underestimated the younger crowd’s desire to turn out for this film, which scored massive walk-up business thanks to the studio using targeted digital advertising methods. That allowed the film to not be dinged by mediocre reviews (it has a 49% Rotten Tomatoes critic aggregated average) and while overall audiences gave it a B+ CinemasScore, the under-18 demographic gave it an A.
Not to state the obvious, but Warner Bros. has a hit on their hands here. Minecraft cost $150 million to produce and the grosses have already easily surpassed that with international grosses at $144 million for a $301 million worldwide start.
It’s too early to see where this film ultimately lands but Super Mario made it to $574.9 million domestically on similar metrics all around. Minecraft isn’t necessarily going to match those numbers, but $500 million does seem potentially achievable and $450 million seems likely.
Jason Statham was pushed into the #2 spot with A Working Man , which held fine at $7.3 million in its second weekend. That’s down an expected 53% from its chart-topping start.
That’s slightly higher than the 48% drop of Statham and David Ayer’s last team-up with The Beekeeper , but we always knew this wasn’t going to have that film’s legs. As it stands, A Working Man is performing solidly enough with $27.8 million domestically and $44.
4 million against a $40 million budget. It seems likely to make its way to around $44 million in the US and it should be minorly profitable before it heads to digital later this month. Coming in at #3 was the second part of The Chosen: Last Supper .
The biblical tale’s part two tallied up $6.7 million. That’s a fraction of the $11.
5 million that Last Supper – Part 1 opened to last weekend, which was always expected to be the case. It’s still (other than Last Supper – Part 1 ) the highest start for the TV series’ Fathom Events launches since The Chosen Season 3: Episodes 1 & 2 started with $8.8 million in November of 2022.
Like Part 1 (which we’ll get to in a minute), Part 2 will drop off the charts quickly. But this is all just extra money for Dallas Jenkins, who uses the theatrical releases to goose TV numbers and thus revenue. No word on the budget as per usual, but it should make it to around $11 million.
Snow White continued to fade as the beleaguered Disney live-action adaptation fell 58% in its third weekend to $6.1 million. This one is proving to have no legs to it, a victim of the bad buzz that was only amplified when it fell short in its opening weekend.
The film now has $77.5 million domestically and $168.4 million worldwide against a $270 million budget it can’t come close to making back.
The domestic final might be $90 million if it can hold on even a little bit, which is not enough by a long shot. The Woman in the Yard was down 52% from its opening weekend, perfectly average for the horror genre. The Blumhouse and Universal film brought in $4.
5 million, pushing its numbers to $16.7 million stateside and $17 million worldwide. It’s doing just fine for a $12.
5 million-budgeted film and should be able to top out at $25 million in the US, enough for profit. Death of a Unicorn also fell a normally acceptable 53%, but did so from a smaller starting number. The A24 horror comedy raked in $2.
7 million for the weekend and now has $10.8 million in the US . It doesn’t yet have any international numbers in but they should help this from becoming too bad of a bomb before hitting digital against a $15 million budget; the final US tally is probably going to be around $15 million.
The Chosen: Last Supper — Part 1 freefell to $1.9 million, down 84% from last weekend’s numbers. That massive drop can be attributed to the front-loaded nature of Fathom Events’ limited runs as well as faith-based films often going this route, not to mention that it had its own second part as competition.
Again, this is all fine as the theatrical is just goosing the franchise’s profits. Part 1 has $17.9 million and will make it to $20 million before exiting.
The horror comedy Hell of a Summer opened low as expected with just $1.8 million. That doesn’t sound great to be sure, but Neon isn’t worried about the prospects for this comedic slasher, as home viewing was always the goal for profit.
The Billy Bryk and Finn Wolfhard-directed movie only cost $3 million to produce and while the critic response hasn’t been great, it can ride the Neon high when it hits the digital market. Theatrically it will probably make it to around $3.5 million or so which is just fine.
Bleecker Street’s latest dramedy The Friend came in at #9, taking in $1.6 million which is more or less where it was expected to open. It’s the best start for a film of studio’s since One Life launched to $1.
7 million in March of last year. The Friend sports good critic scores (85% on RT)( and word of mouth (82% RT audience rating), and should be able to make it to around $4.5 million to $5 million.
No word on its budget but the studio will be fine. Captain America: Brave New World closed out the top 10 with $1.4 million, down just 27% from last weekend.
The film has $199.1 million total and $411.4 million worldwide, and will cross the $200 million domestic mark by Tuesday or so.
It will be very, very slightly profitable against its $180 million budget. Next weekend A Minecraft Movie hold onto #1 with ease. A number of new releases will be vying for the runner-up spots including the Rami Malek-starring thriller The Amateur ($10 million to $13 million), Universal’s tech thriller Drop $8 million to $12 million), Angel Studios’ faith-based The King of Kings ($10 million), The Chosen: Last Supper – Part 3 ($5 million to $8 million), and A24’s war film Warfare ($8 million to $11 million).
BOX OFFICE TOP TEN (Three-Day Domestic Numbers) 1. A Minecraft Movie – $157 million ($157 million total, $301 million WW) 2. A Working Man – $7.
3 million ($27.8 million total, $44.4 million WW) 3.
The Chosen: Last Supper Part 2 – $6.7 million ($6.7 million total, $6.
7 million WW) 4. Snow White – $6.1 million ($77.
5 million total, $168.4 million WW) 5. The Woman in the Yard – $4.
5 million ($16.7 million total, $17 million WW) 6. Death Of a Unicorn – $2.
7 million ($10.8 million total, $10.8 million WW) 7.
The Chosen: Last Supper – Part 1 – $1.9 million ($17.9 million total, $17.
9 million WW) 8. Hell of a Summer – $1.8 million ($1.
8 million total, $1.8 million WW) 9. The Friend – $1.
6 million ($1.7 million total, $1.7 million WW) 10.
Captain America: Brave New World – $1.4 million ($199.1 million total, $411.
4 million WW).
