Box Office: 'Minecraft' Tops $550M as 'Chosen' Proves to Be The 'King of Kings'
Multiple faith-based films pitched in as a new Blumhouse bombed, but a new 20th Century Studios thriller opened like a 2010s 20th Century Fox flick.
A Minecraft Movie earned another $80.6 million on its second domestic weekend, with a $160.2 million global Fri-Sun frame. That was a 51% drop in North America, on par with Beauty and the Beast ($90 million from a $174 million debut in March 2017) and -45% overseas. The Jared Hess-directed kid-friendly comic fantasy is now the second-biggest video game movie ever, even when adjusted for inflation in North America and globally, behind only The Super Mario Bros. Movie ($574 million/$1.3 billion). And that’s with $20 million in China, compared to (offhand) $155 million for Rampage, $78 million for Tomb Raider and $93 million for Pokémon: Detective Pikachu.
Assuming “normal” legs after this second weekend, we can expect a domestic finish of around $450 million and a potential global finish of approximately $870 million for the $150 million WBD/Legendary film. It’s sure to become Jack Black and Jason Momoa’s biggest domestic earner ever, but it will likely come in second globally behind Black’s $962 million Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and Momoa’s $1.15 billion Aquaman. It *could* still join Star Wars ($460 million sans inflation but including 5,137 reissues), Black Panther: Wakanda Forever ($453 million) and Wicked Part One ($475 million) among the biggest domestic grossers to fall short of $1 billion in worldwide grosses.
It could rank among the biggest “new-to-cinema” flicks ever, in terms of raw domestic totals, behind Wicked, Black Panther (kinda-sorta an MCU-specific “sequel” to Captain America: Civil War), Barbie and Avatar. As most of the upcoming competition (Sinners, Accountant 2, Thunderbolts) are less kid-skewing, longer legs are in play. So, of course, WBD’s apparent reaction, whether correlation or coincidence, to this “for today’s kids, dammit” franchise smash is to develop sequels to Practical Magic, Gremlins and The Goonies along with more Matrix and Lord of the Rings movies, an Ocean’s 11 prequel, and a The Bodyguard remake. It’s enough to make me throw a chicken at the screen..