Minecraft beats Mario for best video game movie opening weekend ever

damn.. didn't even know about this movie (not like I would), but did you see it, SW? Plan on seeing it?

Looks dumb as hell. I'll be surprised if it has legs.

No one cares, these movies suck.

Play a video game.

Well, damn. I knew of the movie and thought it’d probably do well but that’s really strong right out of the gate. I’m not terribly interested in it but might pick it up when it comes out on Blu-Ray.

Never been interested in a movie adaptation for a video game but I can say, with 100% certainty, I would not watch Minecraft if it were free to view.

Damn.

That's impressive! MineCraft continues to be a really strong brand even 16 years later.

I'd rather go see a Marvel movie to be honest

The Jack Black casting and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race.

Congrats Microsoft 😏

It's easy to forget Minecraft's roots given what a juggernaut it is today.

But I remember when it first came out. Someone told me about how you downloaded this ~20mb file from this website, no strings attached, cost like $15-20 dollars.

Game industry needs to learn a lesson from that. Less is more, simplicity can be beauty, and a solid gameplay loop will help the game sell itself.

Anyway, I plan on seeing this with some friends. I don't go to movies often these days but it can be fun with friends, especially when it's a "theme" movie that you're all into.

Me and the girls watched it yesterday. Minecraft movie was actually good and it had loads of references and funny moments. But just the most basic movie script ever, compared to the TellTale Minecraft game. It was good fun but not the best video game film that is. Had to go see it and this one's for you TechnoBlade. (R.I.P)

Never thought I would see MS embarrass Disney like that when it comes to opening a successful film...isn't that right Snow White.

I'm surprised to be honest. Movie trailers looked terrible.

My boys (8 and 5) even criticized it, asking why it wasnt fully animated. I had the same question, apparently the IP sells itself.

Might watch it when it's available for streaming down the road.

It was a small niche game. Until Valve employees started gushing about it.

It just exploded from there. Even the free weekend (which was done because Notch could NOT predict the sudden surge of sales), just ended up accelerating sales.

Even after this, it was still a humble game. The developer was never full of himself and still came across as more as a gamer than a corporate exec.

Xbox studio's minecraft

No, it looks awful.

Headline is false. Minecraft did not beat Mario's opening record:

But it's still impressive. Video game movies are the new comic book movies.

My youngest wants to go watch it, I'm gonna get his mother to take him, I'll think of a good excuse not to go eventually 🤣

Any suggestions?

@Jag85: multiple outlets reporting it, even GameSpot https://www.gamespot.com/articles/how-a-minecraft-movie-is-doing-at-the-box-office-so-far/1100-6530629/

The disconnect between the forums and reality strikes again.

News outlets report fake news all the time. The numbers speak for themselves:

• Mario opened with $204.6M domestically and $377M globally.
• Minecraft opened with $157M domestically and $301M globally.

‘Super Mario Bros’ Hits High Scores: Record Opening For Animated Pic At $377M+ WW, 5-Day U.S. Record $204M+; ‘Air’ Soars To $20M – Sunday Box Office Update (2023)

The math ain't mathing. Minecraft did not beat Mario's opening record.

Valve had little to do with it. Minecraft was an Indie game, (depends on who you ask regarding whether it's Indie or not) before MS bought Minecraft. You need to consider that when Minecraft first came out, games where you could change the world you play in were virtually non-existent at that time back in late 2014. Red Faction had some parts of the world where you could dig through cave-walls, which were already huge at the time, but then, came Minecraft with the simple idea, that everything in the world could be changed. The simple idea, that if you see it, you can go there and change it, was huge. It's what inspired generations of gamers to make the world their own.

The fact that the game did not force you to play in any specific way but allowed you to do whatever you wanted...that's why it became successful and most of all, a ton of YouTubers started playing it. YouTubers did play a role in spreading the game, that's the power of Social Media which really helps spread the word. I'll admit, I still love Minecraft to this day and my expectations on the movie were low, but it surprised me how fun it was. Glad to see Minecraft is still as popular as it is today.

@davillain: You know now that you mention it, I really can't think of any game that let your craft the actual world like prior to Minecraft.

Seems like such a common thing now but that really wasn't (imo) that long ago. Feels like it should be an older concept than that.

The Minecraft movie is definitely going to make a lot of money. I wonder if poor word of mouth might kneecap the movie at the box office though.

Roblox did that years before Minecraft. While it was overshadowed by Minecraft for a long time, Roblox has been dominating Minecraft in recent years. Roblox now generates far more annual revenue than Minecraft.

There were things like level editors (e.g. Lode Runner) and game creation programs (e.g. RPG Maker) prior to either game, but Roblox and Minecraft integrated these elements with open world design to come up with the modern sandbox style.

My prediction is that it ends up grossing somewhere between $700 million and $1 billion worldwide. Either way, it's virtually guaranteed to be the second highest-grossing video game movie ever (below only Mario) after it surpasses Sonic 3 in the next 1-2 weeks.

They meant for the 3-day weekend. The Mario movie opened on a Wednesday. Minecraft's Fri-Sun was bigger than Mario's

Yea, I doubt they would just report wrong numbers to the world lol

Most of the older farts here aren't into Minecraft. But younger kids, ie those born in the late 90s and early 2000s are rabid over Minecraft.

Xbox Minecraft does what Nintendont!! lol :P

Mario still holds the record for:

• Worldwide opening
• Domestic opening
• Overseas opening

Minecraft set the record for:

• Domestic opening weekend

Yet the headlines claim "biggest opening" ever for a video game movie. Clickbait sensationalism 101.

They're actually correct.

https://www.the-numbers.com/box-office-records/domestic/all-movies/biggest-day-by-source/based-on-game

Mario's domestic day one (Wed Apr. 5) was 31 million, Minecraft's domestic day one (Fri Apr. 4) was 58 mil. They don't have numbers for Minecraft's WW opening day figures yet but I'm sure once that's in Mario's going to lose that spot.

Opening day... Sure, I'll give you that one. Mario opened on a Wednesday, after all.

But in the movie industry, the "opening" usually means from the release day to the end of the first weekend:

List of highest-grossing openings for films

As you can see here, Mario is ranked higher than Minecraft on the list of highest-grossing openings.

It'll be a corny movie, but it has Jack Black. I don't care what anyone says, I love Jack Black.

I'm not sure who or why someone would dislike Jack Black. Funny guy, good singer, seems nice. He got popular though, that doesn't fly with some people.

I'm on a goal to watch 100 movies in theater this year, it's also the end of my 4 day work week so maybe I'll watch it after work. Get it out of way since Warfare and The Amateur release this weekend.

I don't like Jack Black. Nothing against him as a person, he's like Dwayne Johnson to me; plays himself in every film. I did like him in Tenach.

@mycatismilk: That seems to be how casting goes these days. It's like the writers don't write a character and get someone to play the part, they write with a specific actor in mind and expect them to do what they already did but again in another movie.

It can be fun, but it also leads to overexposure.

Whoa... Minecraft is a bigger IP than Mario?

@TheEroica: Go woke, get rich?

Some people don't like him video game movies lately. I don't get why. Jack Black is actually talented and charismatic. He makes a movie more fun, and can even carry a trash script.

Not really. Mario still holds the record for the biggest video game movie opening:

List of highest-grossing openings for films