Minecraft also beat Barbie: why had no one planned such a box?

The adaptation of the famous video game has dropped several records for its launch.

The start of Minecraft has exceeded all expectations. And even the figures published on Sunday by the Hollywood press, which are recalling it (generally very precise) projections, were below reality. Jared Hess’s film (Napoleon Dynamite) did even better than the $ 157 million initially announced, score which already allowed him to take the title of adaptation of the most lucrative video game to Super Mario Bros (146.4 million).

Minecraft, the film finished his historic weekend with $ 163 million raised in North America. And it’s gigantic. With this figure, it completely exceeds the Barbie From Greta Gerwig, who had brought back 162 million revenues for its launch in 2023. It is simply the 3rd best start for Warner Bros., after Harry Potter and the death relics, part 2 in 2011 (169 million) and Batman V Superman in 2016 (166 million).

As a reminder, the predictions bet on 75 to 80 million revenues for the first weekend of Minecraft. So how could the cinema industry have been planted so much to feel the cardboard to come, which is also global with $ 313 million at the world box office?

Minecraft is the most popular game of all time, with 300 million copies sold and 140 million active players, and the success of its adaptation may seem obvious … afterwards. When the first trailer was put online last September, the first reactions were extremely negative (especially because of the sheep and VFX not finished), and on social networks as in the press already howled at the flop.

A few days ago, Jack Black explained to Total film that he did not expect this welcome at all:

“”I mean, I was surprised, because I love the trailer. I thought it was going to be very well received. You know, there are always a lot of people who are sensitive to everything that can share on the internet. ”

But it was ultimately nothing insurmountable, unlike the remake of Snow white Who saw Disney completely disconnect from the public. Warner Bros. continued to unroll his promotion, and the initial anger of the public went from the second trailer.

“”In all honesty, we did not have cultural and political challenges to overcome, just fans rabid to calm“sums up an insider quoted by Deadline.

Minecraft did not have criticism on his side, with a score even worse than that of Super Mario Bros on Rotten Tomatoes (48% positive reviews against 59). But in both cases, it is proof that the press does not dictate the success or failure of a blockbuster. Especially when it is addressed to a niche, however huge it is.

Hollywood also had trouble predicting the attraction of young audiences for the film, which materialized in the previous days the release when Warner Bros. Has timely accelerated its promotion on social networks.

“”The public under 13 is very hard to measure, and it is the one who responded present“, analyzes a marketing expert interviewed by Deadline. “”Warner is very good at touching an audience that tracking does not know how to quantify“.

The other question is now whether this success will be confirmed in the long term? The public note of Minecraft On Rotten Tomatoes is good (88%), and his cinemascore, a barometer measuring the satisfaction of the spectators at the end of the projection, is very correct, with a note of B+ which climbs even if we only take into account those under 18 years of age.

The film Super mario Was a little better (95 % on RT and A on CS) and had a good and long in-room career, ending his route at more than $ 1.3 billion at the box office. We will know more precisely at the end of his second weekend if Minecraft can hope for such a destiny.