SUNDAY UPDATE: Warner Bros/Legendary’s A Minecraft Movie has come in with an astounding $301M global opening. Of that, $144.1M is from the international box office. As we’ve noted throughout the weekend (see below), the film just continued to build, and has broken records in some offshore markets. Talk about a blocks-buster.
The overseas gross is from 75 markets (Indonesia, Japan and Korea launch later this month) which drew the best start for Hollywood in 2025 so far. Minecraft also logged the 2nd biggest bow for a video game adaptation, behind only 2023’s Super Mario Bros. Movie.
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Internationally in like-for-like markets and using today’s exchange rates, Minecraft is tracking over Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (+228%), Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (+75%), Pokemon: Detective Pikachu (+61%), Sonic 3 (+60%), Kung Fu Panda 4 (+44%), Jumanji: The Next Level (+31%) and just 14% behind Mario.
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In Imax, a $19.4M global debut marks the best for the format since last summer’s Deadpool & Wolverine, and is the 5th best ever for a family title. International markets delivered $6.6M of the Imax worldwide total.
OveraIl in Europe, this is the biggest opening of 2025, the 2nd biggest video game adaptation opening (behind Mario by 6%), the biggest opening ever for Jason Momoa and the 2nd best for Jack Black.
The UK totally dug into Minecraft, with a huge $19.9M and the biggest opening ever for Black and Momoa. In China, now that phenom Ne Zha 2 has started to settle, Minecraft unexpectedly ran the weekend – besting new local titles, and during the Qingming Festival to boot. The frame there was $14.5M. at No. 1 across all three days — just those three days of play already make Minecraft the biggest Hollywood movie of the year so far in the market. Jury is out on what this means going forward.
Other notable areas include the Nordic region (the game originally hails from Sweden) where Minecraft generated a combined $7M.
The Middle East, where the movie took smart advantage of the Eid holiday earlier in the week, grossed $6.8M through Sunday.
The Top 5 starts this weekend are UK ($19.9M), China ($14.5M), Mexico ($11.2M/2nd best for a video game adaptation), Germany ($10.6M/2nd best for a video game movie) and Australia ($8.3M/+10% on Mario).
Rounding out the Top 10, Poland ($6.2M) is on track for the biggest industry opening of all time in both box office and admissions. In Brazil ($5.8M) Minecraft had the biggest opening of 2025 to date. Spain ($5.6M) scored the biggest 3-day opening weekend for a video game adaptation and for a Jack Black title, the best for Jason Momoa and tops for WB since 2012’s The Hobbit. France ($5.6M) gave the Jared Hess-helmed movie the best start for a U.S. title this year and outpaced most comps. Italy ($5.3M) had the second best launch for a video game adaptation ever.
Elsewhere, Iceland had the biggest opening ever for a WB film, and may top Spider-Man: No Way Home as the biggest industry opening of all time.
MISC UPDATED CUMES/NOTABLE
Snow White (DIS): $9M intl weekend (51 markets); $90.9M intl cume/$168.4M global
Novocaine (PAR): $2.5M intl weekend (72 markets); $12.5M intl cume/$32.3M global
Dog Man (UNI): $1.5M intl weekend (59 markets); $36.5M intl cume/$134.3M global
Black Bag (UNI): $1.2M intl weekend (54 markets); $14.3M intl cume/$35M global
Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy (UNI): $1.1M intl weekend (75 markets); $124.3M intl cume
PREVIOUS, SATURDAY UPDATE: With increasing grosses in the cart, Warner Bros/Legendary’s A Minecraft Movie is on track to mine an opening weekend of $260M+ worldwide.
The Jason Momoa/Jack Black-starrer is at $52.7M from the international box office through Friday in 75 overseas markets. That portends an offshore debut in the $125M range. Combined with the domestic mania, it brings us to at least $260M global through Sunday.
Since jumping off the starting block earlier this week, the Jared Hess-helmed A Minecraft Movie has exceeded expectations — and it’s terrific news for the industry.
As we noted yesterday (see below), China opened on Friday with a No. 1 of $6.6M, repping the biggest launch day for a Hollywood title this year. It topped all comps including The Super Mario Bros Movie (+46%) and was more than double Kung Fu Panda 4, as well as the first and third Sonic the Hedgehog movies. Through Saturday — not included in the running international box office above — Minecraft has minted an estimated two-day China cume of $11.5M.
The UK had a super $6M start on Friday, taking a massive 91% of the market’s top five films, and scoring the biggest box office day of the year. Friday’s results are higher than Super Mario (+19%), Across the Spider-Verse (+33%), Inside Out 2 (+80%) and more than twice all three Sonics, KFP 4, Pokemon: Detective Pikachu, and the recent Jumanji movies.
Spain debuted with $1.7M on Friday, a dominant No. 1 at 83% of the top five movies in the marketplace, and the biggest opening day of 2025. Numbers are ahead of Despicable Me 4 (+8%), Across the Spider-Verse (+96%) and over two times the Jumanjis, Pikachu and each of the Sonics.
Poland was also new on Friday, grossing $1.5M at No. 1, and potentially on its way to the biggest opening weekend ever in the market (ie, it could surpass all Marvel and Avatar movies).
The Top 5 A Minecraft Movie‘s markets through Friday are China ($6.6M), UK ($6.2M), Mexico ($4M), Germany ($3.6M) and Australia ($2.8M).
We’ll have a full update on Sunday.
PREVIOUS, FRIDAY: Warner Bros/Legendary’s A Minecraft Movie is digging into a strong start at the international box office, with projections for the overseas and global weekend rising. Through Thursday in 55 offshore markets, the running cume is $18.4M. This does not include Friday’s China opening which was the biggest for a Hollywood film so far this year at an estimated $6.6M (see more detail below).
Along with China, another 19 markets open today including the UK and Spain. We’ll know better tomorrow how high the Jason Momoa/Jack Black-starrer’s global launch could go, but it’s looking like upwards of $90M international while Anthony has noted that domestic projections are at $80M+.
Europe is expected to build big numbers on the Jared Hess-directed movie as school breaks begin and despite some sunny weather. The Middle East has already seen terrific results, at $4.4M through Thursday including previews that began on Monday to coincide with Eid.
The Asian markets that have opened are seeing No. 1 starts, and Latin America is totally digging the movie. The bows so far there have all been No. 1s while the film is taking a 90% share of the Top 5 titles in the region for the best 2025 debut across the Lat Am markets, and the best-ever for Jack Black (excluding animated titles). 3D represents 19% of the total box office there.
Mexico, where the team traveled for a well-attended fan event last month, was the top Thursday play at a clear No. 1 of $1.9M, performing 13% above Sonic the Hedgehog, 54% ahead of Kung Fu Panda 4, 80% higher than Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and more than double Free Guy, the recent Jumanji movies and Pokémon: Detective Pikachu.
Germany was next on Thursday at $1.7M including previews and with a 56% share of the market at No. 1. This is the best start of 2025 and is significantly higher than the above comps as well as double Free Guy, Jumanji: The Next Level, Pikachu, Sonic 2 and Into the Spider-Verse, among others.
France’s Wednesday opening of $1.3M was the top start of 2025 (excluding previews). Opening day results are bigger than Sonic 2 (+7%), Sonic 3 (+25%) Across the Spider-Verse (+53%) and KFP 4 (+97%) as well as double some of the other comps. The cume in France through two days is $1.5M.
Minecraft was a dominant No. 1 in Australia on Thursday with $1.1M, which is 9% ahead of The Super Mario Bros Movie and above all other comps.
Brazil’s Thursday debut was No. 1 at $759K, roughly on par with the opening days of Sonic 3 and Into the Spider-Verse while higher than most other comps.
The Top 5 markets through Thursday are Mexico ($1.9M), Germany ($1.7M), UAE ($1.6M), France ($1.5M) and Saudi Arabia ($1.5M).
Turning to China, the launch was well above expectations on Friday with a No. 1 start that took 30% of a crowded frame. Released locally by Legendary East, the movie had the top opening day of the year for a Hollywood title with an estimated $6.6M. Friday alone was bigger than the full weekend projection for the market. Though there is competition from local titles this session, this is a great start that after just one day makes it the 2nd biggest import of the year. Including last year’s releases, it scored the 4th biggest opening day for a Hollywood title of 2024/25, behind Godzilla x Kong, Venom: The Last Dance and Deadpool & Wolverine.
We’ll have updates throughout the weekend.