
‘A Minecraft Movie' Eyes $130 Million Opening Weekend Box Office
Scene from "A Minecraft Movie."
A Minecraft Movie — Jack Black and Jason Momoa's movie adaptation of the blockbuster Minecraft video game — is unearthing a vast amount of treasure in its opening weekend at the box office.
Black stars as the video game's main character Steve and Momoa plays Garrett, a down-and-out 1980s video game champ stuck in the past.
Garrett and his fellow misfits (Sebastian Hansen, Emma Myers and Danielle Brooks) are pulled through a mystical portal into the Overworld, a block-filled environment where people can build anything they imagine. Steve's being held by the nefarious ruler of a block-shaped band of creatures called the Piglins, though, and he needs Garrett and his friends to help thwart their plans.
After earning $55 million Friday — including $10.5 million in Thursday previews — A Minecraft Movie is projected by Deadline to earn $130 million-plus in its first weekend from 4,265 North American theaters. The film is far out-performing box office projections from earlier in the week, which were ranged from $65 million to $100 million domestically.
A Minecraft Movie had a $150 million production budget before prints and advertising costs, Deadline noted.
An adaptation of Mojang Studios' 2011 smash hit video game Minecraft, A Minecraft Movie is directed by Napoleon Dynamite filmmaker Jared Hess and also stars Jennifer Coolidge and the voices of Jemaine Clement, Rachel House and Matt Berry.
With A Minecraft Movie's projected take of $130 million or more this weekend in theaters, the film appears to be grabbing the majority of the people buying tickets as the rest of the movies in the top five all are estimated to earn in the single digits.
Following the release of The Chosen: Last Supper – Part 1 last weekend, Fathom Events is distributing The Chosen: Last Supper – Part 2, which Deadline projects will earn $7.2 million from 2,313 theaters through Sunday for a No. 2 finish.
Last weekend's No. 1 film — Amazon/MGM Studios' action thriller A Working Man — is projected by Deadline to earn $6.8 million from 3,262 North American theaters for a No. 3 finish to bring its domestic take to $27.3 million.
At No. 4 is Disney's Snow White, which is projected to bring in $5.7 million from 3,750 theaters to up its domestic tally to $77 million, Deadline reported. Universal Pictures' horror thriller The Woman in the Yard is projected to earn $3.7 million through Sunday from 2,845 venues to bring its domestic take to $15.8 million, the trade publication noted.
Note: This box office report will be updated through the weekend with new numbers as they become available. The final numbers will be released on Monday.
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