A Minecraft Movie faced some competition this weekend in the form of Ryan Coogler's vampiric horror film Sinners. The movie includes the star power of Michael B. Jordan, but A Minecraft Movie just can't be stopped.
As of this writing, A Minecraft Movie has made over $700 million dollars on a $150 million dollar budget. Nobody expected the film to be such a massive hit, but, when a movie is turned into a semi ironic meme, it makes money.
A Minecraft Movie has made more money than Captain America: Brave New World, Snow White, Mickey 17, and more to become Hollywood 2025’s most profitable film so far.
Many have wondered how a movie that features Jack Black and Jason Momoa as buddies/rivals inside a popular video game in which everything is made of squares can become so popular. It’s impossible to know what the internet is going to run with.
There is one specific scene in the movie where Jason Momoa’s (Aquaman, Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow) 80s inspired character must fight a feared enemy from the Minecraft game. In the game, monsters, skeletons, zombies, baby zombies, and much more come out at night and attack the player. During the day, there are all sorts of animals around including horses, pigs, sheep, cows, and chickens. When a baby zombie gets too close to a chicken, it can ride the chicken and becomes something known as a chicken jockey. They’re very fast and fairly difficult to fight in the game especially if a player has recently started a new world.
In A Minecraft Movie, this is what Jason Momoa’s character has to fight. When he is about to fight it, Jack Black says, “Chicken jockey!” in a now legendary voice, and that is what the internet decided to focus on. At first, the line was filmed and the caption “absolute cinema” was ironically put with it, but the joke grew from there. Over time, it turned to people clapping an absurd amount when Black delivers the line, but snowballed into people throwing their popcorn, drinks, candy, and anything else they might have all over the entire theater, screaming, shouting, and generally going nuts.
The trend has exploded to the point where actual chickens have been brought into theaters, fireworks have been set off, the police have been called, age limits have been put on screenings of A Minecraft Movie, and Jack Black himself has shown up at theaters to urge people to chill out.
It’s been such a big deal that the director of A Minecraft Movie even commented on it, albeit that was before the fireworks when it was mostly just launching popcorn everywhere.
"I've seen so many funny videos. It's great, especially when people are climbing on their friends' shoulders and standing up and cheering for those moments... I'm just glad people are making memories with their friends and families."
"It's weird when you're having too much fun and the cops get called. It's funny because I think it's just literally cheering and throwing popcorn, which is so funny to me that cops are getting called for popcorn."
Now, there are talks about a sequel to A Minecraft Movie which make sense given the film’s overt success.
Will A Minecraft Movie get a seat at the coveted billion dollar table? Time will tell, but it sure seems like that’s where it’s headed. The movie has made nearly $750 million in just over two weeks. It's certainly aimed in the right direction.
What did you think about A Minecraft Movie? Let us know in the comments!