What We’re Watching: ‘A Minecraft Movie’ Shatters Record with $157 Million Opening

Arts & Culture, Film & TV

“A Minecraft Movie” caused an earthquake at the box office this weekend, grossing $157 million in the best-ever opening for a film based on a video game, injecting some life into what had been a dreary year for theaters.
The Warner Bros.’ film, which stars Jack Black and Jason Momoa and was directed by Jared Hess, topped the $146 million opening of “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” in 2023. It is by far the biggest opening of any film so far in 2025.
Minecraft is the world’s top-selling video game.
The Jason Statham action picture “A Working Man” claimed second place with $7.2 million Friday through Sunday in the United States and Canada, one week after opening in first place, Comscore reported.
Third place went to “The Chosen: The Last Supper — Season 5, Part Two,” which grossed $7 million in its first weekend in theaters. The multi- season television series about the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth has been hauling in better-than-expected grosses in its big-screen showings.
“Snow White” slipped to fourth place with $6 million in its third week, cementing its status as a major bomb. Disney’s big-budget, live action remake of its beloved 1937 classic was plagued by controversy for years preceding its release. Star Rachel Zegler ignited criticism in 2022 by assailing what she characterized as the original’s dated depiction of gender roles. Reviews have also been brutal, with critics and viewers slamming the film’s special effects and the performance of Gal Gadot, who plays the Evil Queen.
Blumhouse’s horror film “The Woman in the Yard” opened with $4.5 million for fifth place.
Rounding out the top 10 domestic releases were “Death of a Unicorn” ($2.69 million), “The Chosen: The Last Supper — Season 5, Part One” ($1.87 million), “Hell of a Summer” ($1.75 million), “The Friend” ($1.6 million) and “Captain America: Brave New World” ($1.39 million).
This weekend’s overall three-day box office haul was estimated at $196 million. The year-to-date total is $1.671 billion — down 5.27% from the figure at this time last year, according to Comscore.

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Gaspar Insfrán: A Filmmaker With A Vision

Arts & Culture, Film & TV

Gaspar Insfrán, a Paraguayan filmmaker, believes that truly observing a place, a scene, or a person is nearly a revolutionary act in today’s world. “Perceiving life in the small details, transmitting that life through the shots, and the passage of time within them are elements that captivate me when I film,” he explains. This deep attention to detail and commitment to authenticity have been key to his journey as a filmmaker.

Gaspar Insfrán: Early Life and Artistic Influences

Born in Asunción on February 6, 1985, Gaspar had a happy childhood surrounded by family and friends. He mostly played with his cousins in the neighbourhoods of Luis Alberto de Herrera and Villa Morra. “I remember riding bikes all day long and playing with the neighbours,” he recalls. “That sense of community does not seem as prevalent today in Asunción, perhaps due to safety concerns and the increasing reliance on technology.” However, he holds dear the time spent with his grandparents, who profoundly influenced him. His maternal grandmother, Margot, was a poet, writer, and painter. Her artistic influence significantly shaped Gaspar’s perspective. He fondly remembers accompanying her in the studio, surrounded by art, which undoubtedly moulded his artistic vision.

The Sacred Ritual of Cinema

Gaspar’s interest in filmmaking grew out of his love for cinema. “Going to the movies has always been a sacred ritual for me,” he says. “The lights go down, and a group of people shares the same experience for a few hours. It’s almost like a liturgical event – stepping away from the invasive nature of technology and entering a dark space to witness a film.” Over time, this love for the medium deepened, and in 2021, after reading numerous books on cinema, he attended a workshop called El Dinosaurio with Paz Encina. This experience opened his eyes to a more personal and experimental form of filmmaking. He was particularly moved by David Lynch’s Blue Velvet, which inspired him to break away from conventional Hollywood cinema and explore unique styles and techniques.

Although Gaspar Insfrán did not formally study film, he earned a degree in social work from the University of Phoenix. His education came from reading books, watching movies, and learning from experienced filmmakers like Dave Walls, Paz Encina, and Marcelo Martinessi. “Sharing their knowledge with others is essential for the continuity of cinema across generations,” he says.

The Creation of El Rastro de la Nada

Gaspar’s first significant project, El Rastro de la Nada (The Trace of Nothing), explored themes of emptiness and solitude. Filmed on both Super 8 and digital formats, the film offered a deeply personal and experimental experience. “I have a special connection with film,” he shares. “Working with this format is difficult and uncertain, but it is also incredibly rewarding. The process itself brings focus to the entire crew, making the act of filmmaking almost magical.” The film’s reception was warm, both domestically and internationally, and it was showcased at prestigious experimental film festivals like the Dobra Festival in Rio de Janeiro and the VGIK International Student Film Festival in Russia. This recognition brought him immense joy, particularly as Andrei Tarkovsky, a major influence on his work, had studied at VGIK.

Gaspar Insfrán Personal Journey Behind Lo Profundo del Río

The process of creating Lo Profundo del Río (The Depths of the River) was deeply personal for Gaspar Insfrán, inspired by his experiences with grief and the death of loved ones. “In Western culture, we avoid talking about death until it touches us,” he observes. “It’s a taboo subject.” The film’s style is contemplative, surreal, and noir, with themes of death, mourning, and love. Gaspar’s own journey with meditation, which helped him cope with the loss of his grandmother, also plays a key role in the film’s development. “Meditation has been an important tool for me, allowing me to create more spontaneously and with greater introspection,” he shares.

While working on Lo Profundo del Río, Gaspar felt more confident but also more nervous, as the project was larger and more complex than his first short film. However, the reception to the film has been overwhelmingly positive. The short was recently selected for the CLaP Festival in Paris, further validating his approach to cinema. The film’s intimate and personal nature resonates with a select audience, often leaving a profound impact.

The Future of Paraguayan Cinema

In the future, Gaspar intends to work on a feature film that will explore the values and resilience of Paraguayan women. The script, co-written with his friend Sebastián Jiménez, is still in its early stages, and Gaspar is in no rush to complete it. “It will take several years, and that’s okay,” he says. Through his work, Gaspar Insfrán hopes to convey a message about the richness we carry within as human beings. He is passionate about exploring the inner world and how it affects our relationships with others and the world around us. “The spiritual dimension is vast and mysterious,” he reflects. “I am deeply excited to create from that space.” He ends with a quote by Sam Shepard: “The earth transmits a message. It exhales it. I capture it by inhaling.”

While Paraguay does not have the biggest scene for movies, it is still growing. From producing to watching, it is getting better in Paraguay and taking a more prominent place. Last year, there was a “Cinema Under the Sky of Asunción” held in the capital. It allowed locals to see short movies in an exterior setting. Major productions and actors are also coming to Paraguay to promote their films, such as the “Society of the Snow.“

You can follow Gaspar Insfrán’s work here on Instagram.

Made in special collaboration with Arami Amarilla.

30K sought books for Books for Kids Day amid school funding cuts

Arts & Culture, Books

The Maryland Book Bank hopes to collect 30,000 books for Books for Kids Day amid school funding cuts.When you give a child a book, Mark Feiring knows you’re giving them opportunity.”It provides them with the resources that many children in the inner cities of the United States don’t have,” said Feiring, the founding executive director of the Maryland Book Bank. “One in 300 kids don’t have a book at home in the United States of America, which is hard to believe. So, we are trying to fill that gap.”Feiring and his team at the Maryland Book Bank are working to fill the gap at home and in schools. It’s a bigger gap now that the U.S. Department of Education cut pandemic relief funding available to support schools creating a budget shortfall for schools across the nation.Baltimore City Public Schools said it will not receive about $48 million in reimbursement for funds the district already spent or is contractually committed to programs. The gap means the school system has to make cuts.”There are tutoring programs that are no longer going to be there for kids. There’s also the afterschool programs that aren’t going to be there,” Feiring told 11 News. “So, the least we can do is make sure that they have what they need to read, to continue to grow and learn.”Organizers said the cuts mean this year’s Books for Kids Day is so important. It’s a day when the Maryland Book Bank collects thousands of book donations to give to schools, organizations, and kids to help fill their home libraries.”We need help badly,” Feiring told 11 News. “We are going to be serving well over 80,000 children throughout the state, if not more, and over 800 different schools and organizations. So, we need as many children’s books as possible.”Books for Kids Day takes place May 3 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 1400 W. Coldspring Lane. Anyone can drop off new or used books or sign up to volunteer.Feiring hopes people will step up to help.”It’s an easy way to clean your shelves off and have an immense amount of impact for children throughout Maryland,” he said.Tap here for more information about Books for Kids Day and how you can donate and/or volunteer.

BALTIMORE — The Maryland Book Bank hopes to collect 30,000 books for Books for Kids Day amid school funding cuts.When you give a child a book, Mark Feiring knows you’re giving them opportunity.

A Minecraft Movie opens to $157 million at the U.S. box office, a new record for game adaptations

Arts & Culture, Film & TV

WB’s Minecraft movie has already crossed $300 million at the worldwide box office.

A Minecraft Movie opened in theaters around the world this weekend, bringing about the first feature film adaptation of the iconic video game. While the overall reception of the film has been mixed, it has attracted audiences to theaters in droves. A Minecraft Movie made $157 million at the domestic box office this weekend, setting a new record for video game adaptations.
A Minecraft Movie’s box office figures were first reported on Sunday morning by outlets like Deadline, with Box Office Mojo providing additional numbers. During the three-day weekend, A Minecraft Movie deposited $157 million in its chest, breaking the record previously held by The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which opened to $146 million domestically in 2023.

Source: Warner Bros. Pictures

The worldwide total for A Minecraft Movie sits at just over $300 million. The film stars Jack Black as Steve and follows a group of humans who find themselves in the world of Minecraft. The movie has gone viral on social media thanks to easter eggs, memes, and other references to the source material.
A Minecraft Movie is the latest example of a hit game becoming a blockbuster film. There’s no current word on a sequel, but given its instant success at the box office, Minecraft will likely get the franchise treatment similar to other successful video game adaptations.

Donovan is a journalist from Maryland. His oldest gaming memory is playing Pajama Sam on his mom’s desktop during weekends. Pokémon Emerald, Halo 2, and the original Star Wars Battlefront 2 were some of the most influential titles in awakening his love for video games. After interning for Shacknews throughout college, Donovan graduated from Bowie State University in 2020 with a major in broadcast journalism and joined the team full-time. He is a huge film fanatic and will talk with you about movies and games all day. You can follow him on twitter @Donimals_

A Minecraft Movie opens to $157 million at the U.S. box office, a new record for game adaptations

Arts & Culture, Film & TV

WB’s Minecraft movie has already crossed $300 million at the worldwide box office.

A Minecraft Movie opened in theaters around the world this weekend, bringing about the first feature film adaptation of the iconic video game. While the overall reception of the film has been mixed, it has attracted audiences to theaters in droves. A Minecraft Movie made $157 million at the domestic box office this weekend, setting a new record for video game adaptations.
A Minecraft Movie’s box office figures were first reported on Sunday morning by outlets like Deadline, with Box Office Mojo providing additional numbers. During the three-day weekend, A Minecraft Movie deposited $157 million in its chest, breaking the record previously held by The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which opened to $146 million domestically in 2023.

Source: Warner Bros. Pictures

The worldwide total for A Minecraft Movie sits at just over $300 million. The film stars Jack Black as Steve and follows a group of humans who find themselves in the world of Minecraft. The movie has gone viral on social media thanks to easter eggs, memes, and other references to the source material.
A Minecraft Movie is the latest example of a hit game becoming a blockbuster film. There’s no current word on a sequel, but given its instant success at the box office, Minecraft will likely get the franchise treatment similar to other successful video game adaptations.

Donovan is a journalist from Maryland. His oldest gaming memory is playing Pajama Sam on his mom’s desktop during weekends. Pokémon Emerald, Halo 2, and the original Star Wars Battlefront 2 were some of the most influential titles in awakening his love for video games. After interning for Shacknews throughout college, Donovan graduated from Bowie State University in 2020 with a major in broadcast journalism and joined the team full-time. He is a huge film fanatic and will talk with you about movies and games all day. You can follow him on twitter @Donimals_

A Minecraft Movie breaks records to become highest opening video game movie of all time

Arts & Culture, Film & TV

A Minecraft Movie has broken box office records to record the highest ever first weekend total for a video game adaptation.According to the Hollywood Reporter, the film took $163m (£128m) on its first three days at the North American box office (including approximately $10m for preview screenings on Thursday), which puts it well ahead of the previous record holder The Super Mario Bros Movie, which took $146m on its opening weekend in the US and Canada in 2023.A Minecraft Movie also made a significant impact outside North America, adding a further $151m in the 75 territories where it was released in its global rollout. In China, where Hollywood blockbusters don’t always connect with a mass audience, the film earned around $14.5m and dethroned another record-breaker, Ne Zha 2, which became the most commercially successful animated film of all time in March. In the UK, the box office was even higher, at £15.5m, making it the strongest performer outside North America.With more than 300m sales and over 140 million players each month, Minecraft is the bestselling video game of all time, with more than 1.3tn views of Minecraft-related videos on YouTube; its developers, Mojang, were acquired in 2014 by Microsoft for $2.5bn.A movie version had been in development since 2014 in conjunction with Hollywood studio Warner Bros, and with the involvement of production company Legendary (Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, Godzilla and Dune), the film started shooting in January 2024. Directed by Jared Hess, and starring Jason Momoa, Jack Black and Danielle Brooks, A Minecraft Movie follows a group of humans who stumble across a portal to Minecraft’s block-world.An initial trailer release in September triggered negative reactions, not dissimilar to that which greeted the first Sonic the Hedgehog trailer in 2019, while the sheer profusion of Minecraft-related video material on YouTube, with creators including CaptainSparklez, Aphmau, and Prestonplayz, also led to suggestions that a feature film spin-off was unnecessary. One prominent YouTuber, ElVitt0ri0, told the Guardian that any Minecraft adaptation should be “an actual piece of love towards the fans by fans, not just some corpo-vomited product by a big company”.In the event, critics’ response to the released movie have been broadly positive, with New York magazine Vulture suggesting “it feels like a small miracle that the resulting film is so funny, lively, and light on its feet”, and Entertainment Weekly saying it is “a breath of fresh air after so many family films that seem preordained by lore”. The Guardian called it “an enjoyable if hectic experience”, while the Observer’s Wendy Ide offered one of the few unambiguously negative takes, calling it “cobbled-together” and an “egregious IP cash-in”.However, audience members have been posting videos online showcasing enthusiastic reactions, including cheering the “chicken jockey!” moment, referencing a cult Minecraft meme.