A Minecraft movie made 301 million dollars at the box office this weekend, 150 million of that being on domestic screens on a 150 million dollar budget. That is, by any metrics, an absolute huge success.

I saw a Minecraft movie in theaters at 9 PM on a Monday night, and I felt like I was 1000 years old. The theater was filled with kids, and I don’t mean small children; I mean kids to me. There was a huge Gen Z crew that all looked to be between 16 and 20. Old enough to be at a movie on a Monday night at 9, but not old enough to go to a bar. This was odd because usually when I see a movie late on a weeknight, the theater is empty. Sometimes I’m the only one there, and it’s become less of a disappointment and more of a nicety. I get to have a whole theater to myself, I don’t have to hide my little pen light and notebook, and can sit wherever I want. This theater, though was filled with loud, raucous kids screaming out lines and loudly applauding at every small easter egg that flew right over my head. It was a different experience from my typical move going routine. This one was loud and distracting at times, and I felt totally disconnected from this film, meant it was more isolating than seeing a movie in an empty theater. And I loved every minute of it.

Minecraft The Game

Minecraft released officially as a video game in 2011, fourteen years ago, and is currently the best-selling video game of all time behind major titles like Grand Theft Auto 5, Tetris, and Wii Sports. Two of those games came packaged in with a system, so that means Minecraft has sold more than entire videogame systems. It’s astounding the popularity of this thing, and I was outrageously naïve to think this wouldn’t translate into huge numbers at theaters.

I’ve been a gamer my whole life, but I’ve never played one second of the Minecraft video game. It’s just not the type of videogame that I’m into, but as someone who saw the Mario movie and every entry in the Sonic trilogy day one in theaters, I understand the appeal. A Minecraft movie is more or less the same idea as these two other films, with one huge difference. This is a movie that’s made for people younger than me. People who grew up with controllers that weren’t wired to their game systems, who didn’t have to sit on the carpet 6 feet away from a square CRT TV to play their video games. This movie is made for the kids who grew up with Minecraft, and they are showing up for this film. Showing up in droves. And even though the words Chicken Jockey mean absolutely nothing to me, I had a blast seeing this flick in theaters with a group of people who were overjoyed at seeing their childhood come to life.

Chicken Jockey

I don’t want to discuss a Minecraft movie with an overly critical eye because what’s the point in that? It’s a kids’ movie that’s over reliant on nostalgia bait for things I’m not nostalgic for or have any reference points with. It stars Jack Black, Jason Momoa, and Jennifer Coolidge. Jack Black has no less than four song breaks in the film, Jason Momoa wears a leather jacket that proudly proclaims him as a garbage man, and Jennifer Coolidge just does her Jennifer Coolidge thing. She is recently divorced and gets really thirsty for a block-shaped man that she hit with her Jeep Grand Cherokee.

It’s a silly film that’s bright and colorful. It’s filled with sophomoric humor and has a fight sequence about every twenty minutes. In short, it’s not a movie made for me. It’s made for a larger audience that I am no longer a part of, and everything I could say that’s demeaning towards the movie would just sound like an old man screaming into the void. I may not have loved the movie, but I loved the experience of being in a packed theater, hearing excitement for everything happening on screen, and sharing the experience of watching a movie with strangers. A Minecraft movie may not win any awards, but it is doing something that’s frankly a lot more important. It’s bringing kids and young adults together to share an experience of watching a movie on the big screen. Something Hollywood has been almost purposefully trying to avoid.

It’s All Reboots

There is a huge lament over the IP-ification of cinema, and I get it, but those movies make money. Tons of money. And we need these big, huge tentpole releases that pour people into the theaters to keep theaters open during the leaner months. Q1 of this year was particularly grim, with even the biggest Marvel movie barely breaking even during its theatrical run. Marvel fatigue may be setting in hard, but Minecraft has something up its sleeve that the MCU doesn’t. It’s current.

All the big IPs we’ve been seeing and continue to see are all old. Jurassic Park, The Avengers, even Sonic the Hedgehog is 33 years old. These are old IPs, rebooted ad nauseam to scratch a nostalgia itch for people my age and older. Minecraft is something new for people who are younger than me, and it’s kind of the first time we’re really seeing this.

Theaters

I want people to go to the movies and keep theaters alive. But that’s not going to happen if every film is aimed at me or my dad. I don’t know anyone under 30 who’s excited about the seventh Jurassic Park movie, eighth Mission Impossible flick, or four movies about each one of the Beatles. A band that broke up 55 years ago.

So yeah, A Minecraft movie isn’t for me. It’s a kids’ movie that’s aimed at a slightly older audience than the Minions flicks, but below my age bracket. And that’s awesome. Give them a Fortnight movie, Minecraft 2, or whatever else will get them in a movie theater for two hours with their friends. Not everything needs to be for me and my generation. We’ve had almost 20 years of Marvel movies and way, way too many Transformers flicks. A Minecraft movie doesn’t scare me, it makes me hopeful.

Future of Theaters

Some people may look at Minecraft and think it’s just another kids’ movie that’s doing great at the theaters, but I think it’s more than that. I think it’s an important shift towards IPs that are aimed away from the elder millennials and Gen X crowd. Movies are something that I love; they’re special to me, and a Minecraft movie is something special. Not because it’s particularly well made or an achievement in cinema, but because it’s bringing a new generation into the place that I love. The movie theater.

Every movie has a theme or an idea it’s trying to convey, and A Minecraft movie is no exception. The film follows Jack Black as Steve, a doorknob salesman who retreats into the Minecraft world in order to build stuff. He has a creative itch that isn’t getting satisfied in the real world. After exhausting all his efforts in the Minecraft world and with the help of some friends, he ultimately decides to head back into the real world and make something there. Something that is real and something that will last. And I think this is a great theme for A Minecraft movie and for kids going out with their friends to see a Minecraft movie in theaters. It’s a little bit scary how much time we spend glued to our phones or computers. Living these entire lives inside videogame worlds or social media spaces. And while that stuff can be fine in small doses, it’s important to remember the real world outside. The shared experiences we all have together and how impactful a night out with friends can be vs a night in by yourself, chatting with a friend online in a video game. A Minecraft movie realizes this theme more than just the ideas it’s presenting on screen. It realizes this theme by getting kids out of the house and into the theaters with their friends.