‘Minecraft Movie’ Posts Fourth Biggest Tuesday In April, Will Stack $65M+ In Second Weekend – Box Office Preview

Better late than never. Hollywood major studios are catching up with the fact that’s it’s spring break, and that there’s an audience out there for movies, not just with Warner Bros/Legendary’s monolithic A Minecraft Moviedriving business, set for a second weekend -60% or $ 65mbut also five wide entries hitting the marketplace before the traditionally lucrative Easter weekend of April 18-20 (that’s when Warners opens the Ryan Coogler directed, Michael B. Jordan starring period vampire movie Sinners).

Comscore reports that 10% K-12 schools are off this Friday and 1% colleges moving to 72% K-12 off, 28% colleges on break on Good Friday, March 18.

Minecraft notched the fourth biggest Tuesday in April yesterday with $12.7M after 2019’s Avengers: Endgame ($33.1M), 2023’s Super Mario Bros Movie ($15.4M) and 2015’s F7 ($13.3M). The running came through five days (Friday-Tuesday) is $185.4M. Though that’s -9% the first five days of Super Mario Bros ($204.6M), really the latter was a different spread, Wednesday through Sunday, over Easter weekend. Super Mario Bros had a massive second weekend of $92.3M, -37%. It remains to be seen whether Minecraft has that wonderous kind of hold.

Among the four wide entries which looks to lead after Minecraft is 20th Century Studios’ Rami Malek $60M thriller The Amateur with $12M. The James Hawes directed pic follows a decoder who takes matters into his own hands after his supervisors at the CIA refuse to take action for his wife’s murder in a London terrorist attack. Disney isn’t shy about lifting the Rotten Tomatoes’ embargo on the movie after early screenings (which will be rolled into Thursday) with 86% with audiences and 68% fresh with critics. Previews are Thursday at 2PM. The Amateur is booked at 3,300 theatres including 400 IMAX auditoriums (which will be shared with Minecraft and A24’s Warfare), 300 PLF screens (also shared with both pics) and 100 D-Box/Motion screens

Angel Studios’ animated movie King of Kings also has a shot at possibly $12M after $7.8M in advance ticket sales as we told you first, which is more than their Sound of Freedom. The movie is inspired by author Charles Dickens, and follows a father and son as they embark on an imaginative journey through the life of Jesus. Pic is 75% fresh with critics. King of Kings was directed by Seong-Ho Jang and features Kenneth Branagh as Charles Dickens, Uma Thurman as Catherine Dickens, Pierce Brosnan as Pontius Pilate, Mark Hamill as King Herod, Forest Whitaker as Peter, Ben Kingsley as High Priest Caiaphas, and Oscar Isaac as Jesus Christ. Previews at 11AM tomorrow.

After The Iron Claw ($4.8M 3-day) and its dystopian right vs left thriller Civil War a year ago ($25.5M), A24 is looking to attract South and Central state moviegoers with the Alex Garland-Ray Mendoza co-directed first person shooter NAVY Seal platoon movie, Warfare, which is eyeing $ 7m- $ 9m+ at 2,650 theaters. The movie which has played like gangbusters with military audiences and vets, follows a troupe as they embark on a dangerous mission in Ramadi, Iraq. There were early paid screenings as well, and those will be rolled into Friday. Warfare is 92% fresh with critics. Previews Thursday at 4PM. Warfare cost a net $20M before P&A.

Note that there’s a feeling out there in the marketplace that those top three movies could all overindex and do above these projections. Warfare is a little stronger than Amateur in men under 25 in first choice, but men over 25 are higher on Amateur over the Garland co-directed title. The notion is that Amateur will play on the coasts and Warfare in the heartland as far as conflicting demos go.

Blumhouse continues is lackluster opening streak this year with the $11M production of Drop which is looking to do between $ 6m- $ 7m at 3,000 theaters. Rated PG-13, Drop made its world premiere at SXSW and stars White Lotus‘ Meghann Fahy, who goes on a blind date with It Ends With Us‘ Brandon Sklenar. She gets bombarded with anonymous threatening messages during the posh date, making for a game of cat and mouse in a Chicago restaurant. Not so bad with critics at 88% fresh. Previews start tomorrow at 1:50PM. Females between 17-34 are the target demo.

Fathom has the third part of The Chosen: Last Supper booked at 2,297 theaters. Part 2 did $6.9M last weekend while Part 1 two weekends ago debuted to $11.8M.