TAGGED AS: Box Office, movies, news
Theaters were bombarded with new releases this week, so much so that they take up half of this week’s charts. Although all of them combined could not match what last week’s winner did in its second weekend, the numbers overall are not bad for them. Concession lines are busy again, and there is a good chance that a single film is going to best the entire box office haul of the month of April from 2024. That is going to shoot down a few narratives about the death of movie theaters.
Faster than you can “chicken jockey,” A Minecraft Movie has become the biggest film of the year. It took just seven days to best Captain America: Brave New World for that title, crossing $200 million, which Cap still hasn’t achieved, standing at $199.91 million. Moana 2 was the last to quickly hit that total in just five days, and with another $80.6 million this weekend (just 50.5% off last week), Minecraft is up to nearly $281 million and on path for even greater numbers. The Super Mario Bros. Movie had a little more with $283.4 million after a $92.3 million second weekend. So Minecraft may be falling a bit off that mega-hit’s pace, but it is still poised for mega-hit status.
To refresh your memory, The Super Mario Bros. Movie was also an April release that went on to gross over $574 million domestic. So at the moment we are not just considering a run over $400 million, but a shot to reach over half-a-billion domestic. We are still talking about the 17th-best second weekend of all time. Among the 20 films to gross over $75 million in their sophomore outings, only three failed to reach $500 million. They were Frozen II, last year’s Wicked, and Avengers: Age of Ultron. Minecraft’s $80.6 million is below the second weekends of Frozen II and Wicked, so the odds are this one is in the $460-470 million range. Globally the film is already at $550 million — not bad for the filmmaker who gave us Napoleon Dynamite out of Sundance 21 years ago.
Families had a second option this weekend, and given the numbers for The King of Kings, many took it. The animated tale of Charles Dickens recounting the story of Jesus Christ for his son made $19 million over the weekend. Strong pre-sales suggested this was going to come out on top among the newbies this weekend, and Angel Studios is again employing the “pay it forward” strategy. They are doing so by having kids during the end credits rave about the film and encourage everyone to take out their phones and click that QR Code on the screen afterwards. The King of Kings’ haul in three days is nearly more than any of the studio’s releases made in their domestic entirety since their breakthrough pay-it-forward smash Sound of Freedom back in the summer of 2023. Last December’s release of Homestead finished its run with $20.8 million. The King of Kings will surpass that this week.
Among the new adult fare this week, James Hawes’ The Amateur with Rami Malek came out best in third with $15 million. The thriller is a remake of the 1981 film with John Savage, itself an adaptation of Robert Littell’s book. Since the rebranding of Fox into 20th Century Studios under Disney’s roof, they have only released four films to gross over $50 million (Avatar: The Way of Water, Free Guy, Alien: Romulus, and The Call of the Wild). The Amateur’s opening is more in line with the starts for their A Haunting in Venice and The Creator, which each finished between $40-43 million. It made another $17.2 million internationally. A $32.2 million global start is not in the best vicinity for a film costing $60 million.
Costing a third of that film is Alex Garland & Ray Mendoza’s Warfare. The $20 million production based on Mendoza’s experience during an Iraq War firefight opened to $8.3 million. This is the studio’s fourth wide release in a row to open with less than $10 million. Heretic was the last one, finishing with $27.9 million (a 2.58 multiple over its opening), and Garland’s Civil War had a similar 2.68 multiple over its $25.5 million start last April. Warfare is the best-reviewed new wide release of the week and one of the highest-rated of 2025 to date.
Since Night Swim and the Speak No Evil remake last year, Blumhouse Productions had Wolf Man turn out to be one of their bigger duds in January. The Woman in the Yard has done OK for its budget and is up to over $20 million after making $2.1 million this weekend. A few international dollars would help it get to profit. Their latest, Drop, from director Christopher Landon, opened to $7.5 million, which again is not bad for its miniscule $11 million budget and also has a decent shot to hit profit. Certified Fresh with critics, it is one of their best-reviewed films since M3GAN came out in January 2023. Its sequel hits theaters on June 27.
While families were busy going to see The King of Kings, not as many had time for The Chosen: Last Supper Part 3. Perhaps they knew the ending already, but for two straight weeks viewers have poured over $29 million into the big screen viewings of the TV show. Part 1 opened to $11.8 million and has made $19.2 million. Part 2 began with $6.9 million and has made $10.9 million. Part 3 this weekend opened to $5.8 million, putting this multi-part effort at over $35 million together.
Jason Statham and David Ayer’s A Working Man fell back a bit to seventh place with just $3.06 million, bringing its total to $33.5 million. Now it appears it will not match its $40 million budget, though it could still see a nine-digit total come of its global theatrical run. International is helping with another $41 million on its own, bringing its total to over $75 million. It is going to get close, even if it is no Beekeeper.
Of course, that brings us to the box office poison apple of the year in Disney’s Snow White. In its fourth week, it has tumbled to eighth place with just $2.8 million. Not only is the film not going to reach $100 million, it likely won’t even hit $90 million domestic. $81.9 million is its total now, and globally it is only at $181 million. The only film to date to cost more than $210 million and not even gross $200 million worldwide was last year’s Red One from Amazon/MGM. It made $185 million globally and cost $250 million. Both The Marvels and Snow White reportedly cost as much as $270 million and even The Marvels made it to $205 million.
The Friend with Naomi Watts and Bill Murray made $621,000 in 1,008 theaters to bring its total to $3.1 million. A24’s Death of a Unicorn fell 81% to $525,000 with a total of $12.4 million. Last week’s moved up release of Hell of a Summer by Neon moved way down, dropping 75% to just $448,000. It has made $2.9 million to date. Focus, meanwhile, expanded The Ballad of Wallis Island into 253 theaters, and it made $400,000 for a total of just $737,000. Michael Angarano’s Sacramento starring himself, Michael Cera, and Kristen Stewart made $314,000 in 241 theaters.
Though Warner Bros. has slow-rolled the film out to select press on the coasts so far, Ryan Coogler’s Sinners with Michael B. Jordan is the most anticipated film of the week. Did they miscalculate by swapping the release date with Mickey 17 and putting it in the path of A Minecraft Movie? Different audiences, but the studio should still see a 1-2 punch on the charts next week. Briarcliff will try to lure a few audiences away with the animated basketball comedy Sneaks. Also opening is Andrew Ahn’s remake of Ang Lee’s The Wedding Banquet, which was well-reviewed out of Sundance. In limited release will also be a pair of favorites from the festival, including the children’s fantasy, Isaiah Saxon’s The Legend of Ochi from A24, and Emilie Blichfeldt’s alternative Cinderella tale The Ugly Stepsister from IFC. Finally, Sideshow Releasing will open David Cronenberg’s The Shrouds.
Erik Childress can be heard each week evaluating box office on Business First AM with Angela Miles and his Movie Madness Podcast. [box office figures via Box Office Mojo]
Thumbnail image by ©Warner Bros.
