This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows a scene from “A Minecraft Movie.” (Warner Bros. Pictures via AP)Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures/The Canadian Press
Minecraft might be runner-up to Tetris in the race for the world’s best-selling video game, but A Minecraft Movie’s tops the charts as the most successful for a game adaptation of all time, beating The Super Mario Bros. Movie. Its first two weeks in theatres have made it the highest grossing Hollywood movie of 2025, raking in US$550 million worldwide. Commercially, the franchise has been a gold mine.
Something about the film touched flint and steel to a cultural powderkeg. Opening weekend saw clips of theatre antics become a viral trend. TikTok quickly became inundated with videos of crowds erupting at notable quotes from the movie, throwing popcorn at the screen or clambering on each other’s shoulders. Some incidents resulted in enough chaos for calls to local authorities.
For all the commercial success, the film hit some stumbling blocks across critics’ desks. Its Rotten Tomatoes score plummeted to as low as 48 per cent, and The Globe’s Radheyan Simonpillai said the film was where the original video game’s “creativity goes to die.”
Because of how massively divisive the movie has been, we wanted to know what kids, the actual target audience, thought. Here’s what kids, and their parents, shared with us.
Audience adoration
“Sorry critics. Kids absolutely loved it. Kids lit up the typically sleepy movie theatre with cheering and laughs. Maybe reframe your thinking to address film’s purpose – which was certainly not to create high art.” – Stuart Weisberg
“If you’re a gamer who has played Minecraft, then you’ve always imagined yourself actually in the game. That’s what made the movie so great for me. It was what I’ve always thought about and it was made real and I could see what it would look like. Plus, Jack Black is hilarious.” – Noah Pereira, 14
“My son saw it opening night with his uncle David. He loved it. That was a 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍 up.” – Suzanne Smith
Mixed bag from teens
“My 15-year-old daughter and I were surprised to really enjoy it. Most/all of the silly gags were delivered very well and really hit. The climactic battle action was generally boring, and the overall plot was irrelevant. The gags and associated visuals more than made up for it.” – Thomas Kapler
“My 13-year-old thought it was gratifying to see all the memes. Sadly, even he could tell the plot was lacking.” – Tina Louie
More quotes from the kids
“I’m Frankie. I went to the movie because it was for a friend’s birthday. I thought the movie was great because I’m a big fan of Minecraft and it included a lot of iconic things about the game, like the tools, how to get items and how night comes every 20 minutes. But there’s one thing that it did not have that the game does: creative mode. I found it cool and kind of amusing that everyone was clapping or saying other things about the movie while it was playing. When I learned that Jack Black was the same actor from Jumanji, I got very excited. I liked all the songs and music and all the mobs. My rating is a 9.5/10.” – Frankie, 9
“10/10. The graphics are amazing! The green screening, the effects, the characters! This movie is totally worth buying 10/10!” – Isaac, 9
“When I saw the trailers for the Minecraft Movie, I thought that it was going to be weird and lame, but I wanted to go because I hoped for it to be so bad it was good. My hope for it to be so bad that it was good failed because it was actually really good and fun.” – via Chris Kennedy
