via Oliver Beer / @IGN / @PopBase
How A Minecraft Movie Became an Unexpected Smash
Industry projections were astoundingly wrong about A Minecraft Movie. The Jack Black-starring film was initially expected to gross just $60 million during its opening weekend, yet somehow it walked away with $157 million domestically. This made it the biggest opening for a new movie in 2025 by almost double—besting Captain America: Brave New World’s $88.5 million opening weekend totals.
Why were people so off the mark? It’s possible that industry analysts were skeptical of how the film would be received critically and how that would impact word of mouth. However, this proved to be a non-issue. Sure, A Minecraft Movie currently holds a lukewarm-at-best 48% on Rotten Tomatoes, but that didn’t seem to matter in the end. After all, its audience score boasts a strong 88% figure. This discrepancy mirrors the reception for The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which also coincidentally starred Jack Black.
This begs the question: Why did moviegoers not care about reviews or even quality for this particular film? That’s an easy one. Because it’s Minecraft! Nothing about the artistry of this film or the way it was marketed suggested that the filmmakers were trying to impress critics at all. This film was about fan service, as evidenced by the TikTok trend that sparked after its release where audiences lose their minds shouting “chicken jockey” at the screen.
This movie works because both the filmmakers and the audience know exactly what kind of art this is: Unapologetic, low-brow fun. No one was trying to elevate the Minecraft brand to a level of prestige. No one was trying to impress cinephiles and critics along with d*e-hard fans. The creatives behind A Minecraft Movie actively chose to make this a silly, irreverent, fan-first experience. It was a commercially-minded choice that matched with what fans of the franchise wanted in a big-screen adaptation. Quality and personal taste aside, given how rarely the film industry and audiences align on anything these days, one cannot help but admire the forces behind A Minecraft Movie and how well they knew their audience.
Why The Last of Us is a Different Kind of Hit
Whereas A Minecraft Movie leans into its silliness, HBO’s The Last of Us takes itself very seriously. At its core, the Emmy-winning drama is a dystopian apocalyptic zombie action-adventure. Yet, you would not necessarily know that from the way people have spoken about the series. This is the same show in which IndieWire described the third episode as “a masterful love story for the ages.” From the creative talent involved to the critical and audience reception, The Last of Us has successfully branded itself as a broad-appealing feat of prestige television—a spiritual successor to Game of Thrones, if you will.
What’s fascinating about the brand of The Last of Us is that despite being the exact opposite of the Minecraft tone and mood, fans of the source material are similarly fully on board with the adaptation. Part of that is because fans will tell you that the original game has always been thematically dense, high-brow material. Naturally, they would want the television adaptation to live up to that standard.
Another part of the show’s recipe for success is the collaboration between critically acclaimed writer/director Craig Mazin (Chernobyl) and the original creator of the game, Neil Druckmann. Druckmann’s involvement gives the show the near immediate approval of its fanbase no matter what happens, even if the adaptation occasionally meanders from the source material.
Early discussion about the upcoming second season has already shown that The Last of Us has continued to pursue and successfully maintain its prestigious, high-brow reputation. Reviews have described the new installment as an “emotional wrecking ball,” and HBO will likely begin mounting the show’s Emmy campaign in the coming months. We have yet to see if the ratings will continue to impress, but it’s hard to imagine they won’t. HBO seems confident already, having just renewed the series for a third season ahead of season two’s premiere.
Witnessing these two diametrically opposed approaches to adaptation succeed within the same short period of time provides some clarity on how to properly bring a video game to life on screen. The key is for all the creatives involved to have a strong sense of how best to serve the fanbase. If fans want it to be thematically rich and artistically engrossing, you have to honor that. If they want it to be pure fun at the movies and nothing more, you have to respect that as well. Trying to do both at once might result in a tonally confused mess, which will certainly upset the audience. The best course of action, therefore, is to do exactly what the creatives behind A Minecraft Movie and The Last of Us did: Choose which extreme best reflects the fanbase’s wishes—high-brow or low-brow—and stay fully committed to that choice from beginning to end.
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