A Minecraft Movie obliterated all projections with a whopping $157 million opening at the domestic box office this weekend. That’s the best-ever debut for a video game movie, narrowly besting the former record set by 2023’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie ($146.4 million). According to The Hollywood Reporter, around 35 percent of the audience was between the ages of 13 and 17, and seemingly all of them shouted “chicken jockey” at the screen.
For everyone who was born before Obama was elected president, A Minecraft Movie has an Avengers: Endgame-style moment of spontaneous crowd participation in a scene where I… Am Steve and Garrett “The Garbage Man” Garrison, played by Jack Black and Jason Momoa, are confronted in a boxing ring by a zombie baby riding a chicken (sure!). When Steve says “chicken jockey,” a reference straight out of the top-selling video game ever, theatergoers yell it back and erupt into applause, as seen here (but seriously, keep your dang phone in your pocket).
“My theater clapped every time Jack Black name dropped a Minecraft item that was in the trailers, and when he said Chicken Jockey I sh*t you not the entire row in front of me gave a standing ovation,” one person wrote on X, while another added, “Just got back from watching the movie myself, can confirm everyone in the theater collectively yelled ‘CHICKEN JOCKEY’ during that moment and it was glorious ngl.”
There’s even been (unconfirmed) reports of the police being called due to the pandemonium.
Who knew A Minecraft Movie would be Gen Z’s The Rocky Horror Picture Show?