Block-busted: why homemade Minecraft movies are the real hits

The bestselling video game ever has a devoted, vocal, following. Can a faceless corporation make a successful film based on such beloved IP without involving its fanbase?

By any estimation, Minecraft is impossibly successful. The bestselling video game ever, as of last December it had 204 million monthly active players. Since it was first released in 2011, it has generated over $3bn (2.3bn) in revenue. What's more, its players have always been eager to demonstrate their fandom outside the boundaries of the game itself. In 2021, YouTube calculated that videos related to the game - tutorials, walk-throughs, homages, parodies - had collectively been viewed 1tn times. In short, it is a phenomenon.

Such is the strength of feeling, almost all of it positive, about Minecraft that it was only a matter of time before someone tried to turn it into a film. After all, you have a historically popular product and a highly engaged fanbase: what could possibly go wrong? Turns out, quite a lot. Last September, the first trailer for the film - titled A Minecraft Movie - was released, and the reaction was instant and violent. Minecraft fans devastated by awful' live-action trailer" read one headline the following day. Some called it a crime against humanity"; others a soulless neon abomination". In less than 24 hours, the website GamingBible had called it a curse on my eyes" and pure nightmare fuel". Within three days of its release, the trailer had been downvoted more than 1m times.