A Minecraft Movie

• 1. Introduction

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  A Minecraft Movie arrived in theaters in 2025, and at one screening at Provo Towne Centre in Provo, Utah, audience members hoisted a live chicken into the air. They were promptly ejected from the theater, and videos of the moment spread across the internet. How does a film adapted from a game with no story end up inspiring behavior like this? The answer begins with years of false starts at Warner Bros. and several abandoned versions of the project. It runs through a stubborn question about what a plot even means in a sandbox, a cast reshuffled by Hollywood labor disputes, and a marketing push that reached as far as a hot dipping sauce. It ends in a crowd that treated a movie more like a concert.

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• 2. Decade In Limbo

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  In February 2014, Minecraft creator Markus Persson revealed that Mojang Studios was in talks with Warner Bros. about an official film. Hollywood producers had already pitched a television series, and Persson had shut down a crowdfunded fan film. By October, Mojang's Vu Bui described the project as a large-budget production that might not reach theaters until 2018. Roy Lee and Jill Messick were first set to produce. That same month, Warner Bros. hired Shawn Levy to direct, yet he and writers Kieran and Michele Mulroney had left by December.

  By July 2015, Rob McElhenney was the director. He liked the open-world nature of the game, and the studio gave him a preliminary budget of 150 million US dollars. Jason Fuchs was set to write, Steve Carell was going to voice an unknown character, and a release date of the 24th of May 2019 was announced. Then studio executive Greg Silverman left Warner Bros. in late 2016, and the project “slowly died on the vine.” Aaron and Adam Nee were asked to rewrite the script, which delayed the film, and no new director was named.

  Peter Sollett was announced in January 2019 as writer and director of an entirely different story. It centered on “a teenage girl and her unlikely group of adventurers” on a quest to defeat the Ender Dragon, the final boss of the original game. Jill Messick, who died in 2018, was credited posthumously as producer. A new release date of the 4th of March 2022 followed, and Allison Schroeder was hired that June to write the script and co-write the story. The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 then forced Warner Bros. to adjust its schedule, and the film lost its planned date.

  In April 2022, the project moved forward without Sollett and Schroeder. Jared Hess would direct, Legendary Entertainment would co-produce through its executive Mary Parent, and Jason Momoa was in early talks to star. The film was confirmed as live action. Chris Bowman and Hubbel Palmer, who had worked with Hess on Masterminds in 2016, would rewrite the script. Producer Roy Lee credited the studio's new leadership for the revival. He said: “Toby Emmerich shut it down when he first started, and if he had never run Warner Bros., it would’ve been made years earlier. It was only after Pam Abdy and Mike De Luca started that they reignited the project and it got made.”

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• 3. Story From Nothing

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  Jared Hess came to Minecraft after a separate project he was developing with Legendary never materialized. The studio invited him to pitch a take on the game. He later said he enjoyed trying to “adapt something that doesn't have a story,” since Minecraft is an open sandbox. He hoped to find a “fun, ridiculous movie.”

  The title A Minecraft Movie, rather than The Minecraft Movie, carries the whole philosophy. The team chose to tell one story among many instead of an official canon story. That suited a game that lets players invent their own stories. Jack Black's Steve follows the same logic. The crew described him as one of many Steves, not the Steve from the game.

  The story that resulted begins with Steve, a struggling doorknob salesman who finds the Orb of Dominance and the Earth Crystal in a mine. Combined, they open a portal to the Overworld, a land built from easily manipulated cubes. Steve later stumbles into the Nether, a hellish realm ruled by Malgosha, a gold-obsessed piglin who discourages creativity. She imprisons him and steals his dog Dennis.

  Years later in Chuglass, Idaho, Garrett “The Garbage Man” Garrison, a 1980s video game champion with a failing store, wins the contents of Steve's old house at a storage auction. He had hoped to find an Atari Cosmos. Siblings Henry and Natalie, who moved to town after their mother's death, and their real estate agent Dawn, who runs a mobile petting zoo, end up involved. All four are pulled through the portal and must find a way back to the real world with Steve as their guide.

  On screen, the screenplay is credited to Chris Bowman, Hubbel Palmer, Neil Widener, Gavin James and Chris Galletta, from a story by Allison Schroeder, Bowman and Palmer. A separate credit for additional literary material runs past twenty names. It includes Zak Penn, Simon Rich and Jon Spaihts, along with Hess himself.

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• 4. Casting Turns

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  Jack Black was not the first choice for Steve. Matt Berry entered negotiations in May 2023, and the plan was for Black to appear only as a talking pig in a cameo. Then the 2023 Hollywood labor disputes forced Berry to vacate the role, and Black took over. Producer Torfi Frans Olafsson said Black's version of Steve was “specific to him.” Black had worked with Hess on Nacho Libre in 2006, and he teased his casting in January 2024 on his official Instagram account. Berry still appears in the film as the voice of Nitwit, a villager who is transported to Earth and becomes Marlene's romantic partner. Bret McKenzie performed Nitwit's motion capture.

  Danielle Brooks and Sebastian Eugene Hansen joined the cast in November 2023, and Emma Myers followed in December. Jennifer Coolidge, Kate McKinnon and Jemaine Clement were cast alongside Black in then-undisclosed roles. Coolidge plays Marlene, a vice principal with a history of accidentally driving her 2001 Jeep Grand Cherokee into others. Clement plays an auctioneer named Daryl. Rachel House voices Malgosha, with Allan Henry as the motion-capture performer. Momoa, who stars as Garrett, is also one of the producers.

  The YouTuber Valkyrae was originally set to appear but was removed after she openly accused Momoa of mistreating the cast and production crew.

  DanTDM, Aphmau, Mumbo Jumbo and LDShadowLady did make it into the film, appearing as auction attendees. Mumbo Jumbo also contributed to designing some of the props. Jens Bergensten, one of the lead designers of Minecraft, plays a waiter who tends to Marlene and Nitwit. A pig wearing a crown appears as a tribute to the YouTuber Technoblade, who died in 2022. After the credits, Kate McKinnon makes an uncredited vocal cameo as Alex, a woman living in Steve's house, with Alice May Connolly appearing physically in the role.

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• 5. Cubes On Camera

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  Principal photography began in January 2024 in Auckland, New Zealand, and concluded by April. Filming had been planned for August 2023 but was delayed by the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. Most scenes set in the fictional town of Chuglass were shot in Huntly. Additional production took place at Helensville, Auckland Film Studios and Settlers Country Manor. Grant Major served as production designer, Enrique Chediak as cinematographer and James Thomas as editor.

  The crew wanted every object to stay faithful to the game, which meant building everything from trees to fruit out of cubes alone. The film is predominantly live action, yet it leans on a heavy amount of computer animation for terrain, animals and monsters. Green screens and in-studio lighting were used extensively. 3D models were imported into Unreal Engine to build virtual versions of various sets. Sony Pictures Imageworks, Wētā FX and Digital Domain provided the visual effects, with Dan Lemmon as supervisor.

  Mark Mothersbaugh composed the score and slipped in nods to the game's music by C418. He said he wanted to balance the charm of the characters with the action while keeping depth and emotional resonance. C418's title track plays over the opening credits, and his song “Dragon Fish” accompanies a scene with pandas. Lena Raine's track “Pigstep” drives the “Nether's Got Talent” sequence.

  Black performed several original songs, including “I Feel Alive,” which he wrote. Dave Grohl plays drums on it, Troy Van Leeuwen of Queens of the Stone Age plays guitar, and Roger Joseph Manning Jr. of Jellyfish plays keyboards. Mark Ronson handles rhythm guitar and bass, and Brooks sings backup. The single came out on the 20th of March 2025, and Mothersbaugh's score arrived digitally on the 28th of March alongside songs by Benee, Dayglow and Dirty Honey.

  Another song, “Steve's Lava Chicken,” went viral after the film opened and charted in several territories. It became the shortest song ever to reach the Top 40 of the UK singles chart and the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States.

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• 6. Trailers And Tie-Ins

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  The first teaser trailer, released on the 4th of September 2024, was set to the Beatles' “Magical Mystery Tour.” Reactions were described as divided or generally negative, with criticism aimed at the CGI, the design and the live-action approach. Andrew Webster of The Verge saw “unsettling imagery” but also “some silly family fun.” Tom Power of TechRadar could not decide whether it was “drop-dead gorgeous or the stuff of nightmares.” Markus Persson, on Twitter, wrote: “Ok i'm in Wow this is a weird feeling.”

  Online commenters ridiculed a bleating pink sheep, a white llama, and a moment where Black says “I... am Steve.” A second trailer, set to MGMT's “Time to Pretend,” arrived on the 19th of November and drew a more positive response from many viewers. A final trailer followed on the 27th of February 2025, and a final teaser on the 27th of March.

  A few days before the release, a workprint with incomplete effects, missing credits and visible chroma key masking errors leaked onto piracy websites and spread on social media.

  Mojang also partnered with brands on promotional products. There were action figures, “creeper green” vanilla milk from TruMoo, and Samsung offerings that included Galaxy S25 wallpaper themes, a Neo QLED 8K TV and a Family Hub SpaceMax fridge freezer. McDonald's offered special Happy Meals. The “uncanny” look of the Jack Black action figure drew attention and some criticism. The “Nether Flame Sauce” from the McDonald's promotion was lauded for its spice and for how well it paired with Chicken McNuggets.

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• 7. Numbers And Verdicts

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  Filmgoers polled by CinemaScore gave A Minecraft Movie an average grade of B+, and 67 percent of those surveyed by PostTrak said they would definitely recommend it. Children under 12 averaged five out of five stars, and parents averaged four and a half. Critics were less united, and their reviews were mixed.

  Lovia Gyarkye of The Hollywood Reporter and Jesse Hassenger of IGN both found the plot confusing. Hassenger called it “conceptually muddy.” Mark Kennedy of the Associated Press thought the film would make no sense to anyone unfamiliar with the game, yet still judged it a faithful adaptation. Liz Shannon Miller of Consequence disagreed and found it fully comprehensible to newcomers.

  Performances drew praise, especially from Black and Momoa, and several critics felt the actors distracted from weaknesses in the story. Miller and Jordan Hoffman of Entertainment Weekly both felt the story was not the main priority. Others found the characters underdeveloped. Coolidge's subplot with a villager was called unnecessary by some and praised by others.

  Kevin Maher of The Times and David Fear of Rolling Stone likened the film to a corporate cash-grab that existed to promote the Minecraft brand. Fear suspected the confusion was intentional, meant to keep the film in people's minds and push merchandise sales. Clarisse Loughrey of The Independent thought a live-action Minecraft was fundamentally flawed, yet she saw “genuine intent” behind it.

  The film premiered at Leicester Square in London on the 30th of March 2025 and opened in IMAX in the United States and Sweden on the 4th of April. Thursday night previews earned an estimated 10.6 million dollars, beating the 10.3 million of Five Nights at Freddy's. Opening weekend projections of 65-70 million dollars kept climbing. The film debuted with 162.8 million dollars domestically and 313 million globally, topping The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which also featured Black, as the biggest opening for a video game film.

  In its first seven days, it became the first film of 2025 to pass 200 million dollars domestically. In its third weekend, it earned 40.5 million dollars and slipped to second place behind Sinners, which earned 48 million. It was the first time since 2009 that one studio had two films gross more than 40 million dollars in the same weekend. The final tally was 424.1 million dollars in the United States and Canada and 537.1 million elsewhere, for 961.2 million worldwide. That made it the fifth-highest-grossing film of 2025 and the third-highest-grossing video game film of all time.

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• 8. Chicken Jockey Ritual

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  The phrase “Chicken jockey!” became a signal. When Steve shouts it in the film, viewers, particularly Generation Z American and British adolescent boys, erupted into cheers, jumping, dancing and thrown popcorn. Another line, “Flint and steel!”, drew the same response. The behavior was organized and spread through TikTok and other platforms, and it reached teenage boys in Australia and South Africa.

  Some screenings turned ugly. One group set off fire extinguishers and smoke bombs, suffocating fellow theatergoers. Another incident ended in a violent altercation in a parking lot after adults asked four teenagers to quiet down. Some audience members called the misconduct annoying and disruptive, and several theater chains posted warnings. Police were reportedly called to restore order and eject offenders, and an employee was physically harmed, though no charges were filed.

  Hess defended some of the antics as harmless and amusing. He explained that he and Black conceived the scene because they “thought it would be funny if Steve announced everything that happens to him, stating the obvious with extreme intensity.” Black made a surprise appearance at a screening and warned fans not to throw popcorn. Kate Maltby, writing for The Observer, argued that audiences had crossed the line and pointed to the mess left for janitors.

  Research psychologist Rachel Kowert offered another reading. She said: “While being quiet is generally the norm in traditional theater settings, it's important to recognize that different fan cultures come with their own expectations for how to engage.” Others compared the trend to concerts or sporting events, and to audience participation at screenings of The Rocky Horror Picture Show in 1975 and The Room in 2003. The “Gentleminions” trend around Minions: The Rise of Gru in 2022 was another precedent. The phenomenon has been cited as one factor in the film's box-office success.

  Warner Bros. leaned in, releasing a “Block Party Edition” on the 2nd of May 2025 that encouraged fans to “sing-along and meme-along.” In the United Kingdom, Cineworld hosted “Chicken jockey screenings” where fans could cosplay and make noises, a move Nicholas Quah of Vulture praised for its ingenuity.

  Talks about a sequel began a few days after the 4th of April release. Hess noted that the world's infinite mods, characters and biomes make Minecraft virtually endless, and he said many unused ideas could go into a follow-up. On the 9th of October, a sequel was announced for the 23rd of July 2027, with Hess directing and Galletta returning to co-write. Legendary Pictures will produce and fund it. Kirsten Dunst was cast as Alex on the 19th of March 2026. After a stretch as A Minecraft Sequel, the film received its official title, A Minecraft Movie Squared, on the 30th of May 2026 during Minecraft Live.

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