An unfinished version of the Minecraft Movie was somehow leaked online ahead of the movie’s theatrical release.
The adaptation of the popular video game — starring Jack Black, Jason Momoa, Danielle Brooks, Emma Myers, Jennifer Coolidge and Sebastian Eugene Hansen — hit theaters Friday, soaring past box office expectations despite lukewarm reviews.
However, in the days before its release, pirated footage was uploaded online, showing incomplete animation and title cards, green screens and production wires. Screenshots have also been widely shared across social media, although most of the images and footage have since been scrubbed by copyright owners.
It’s not uncommon for popular movies to be uploaded to piracy sites. But it is rarer for unfinished copies to be leaked, leading to concerns about security breaches and how people managed to gain access to disseminate the footage, according to Variety.
The Independent has contacted Warner Bros. and Legendary for comment.
Still, the leak does not appear to have affected the movie’s success at the box office. A Minecraft Movie is already expected to take in $140 million domestically during its opening weekend — vastly higher than predicted — as well as an additional $100 million+ from outside the U.S.
If it manages to hit or even exceed those figures, it will have become the biggest movie opening of the year to date. With those numbers, it would put it among the ranks of the highest-earning video game adaptations. Currently, 2023’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie holds the record with its opening weekend debut of $146.4 million domestically.
Directed by Jared Hess, A Minecraft Movie follows a group of four misfits who find themselves transported to the Overworld, a fantastical cubic land. In order to escape, they must embark on a journey across the unfamiliar terrain.
So far, the movie has not impressed critics, with The Independent’s Clarisse Loughrey describing it as “underwhelming” in a paltry two-star review.
“There’s a through line, buried in here somewhere, about how it’s harder to be creative, easier to destroy,” Loughrey writes. “Unfortunately, A Minecraft Movie proves its own point. Creativity took too much effort. Easier to destroy the spirit of the video game instead.”
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Screenings of the movie have also spawned a bizarre cinema trend that has left some audiences “annoyed.”
Amid the movie’s release, cinemagoers have been sharing footage of crowds watching the film, with certain moments prompting loud, vocal responses from the people in attendance. One such moment, which features prominently in the film’s trailer, sees Black and Momoa confronted in a boxing ring by a cuboid Minecraft chicken, who is ridden around the ring by another character. “Chicken jockey,” exclaims Black’s character, a reference to the video game that seems to be sending audiences wild.
Several videos shared online by moviegoers show audiences chanting the line along with Black, before whooping and clapping loudly. On social media, many people attested that they had witnessed, or participated in, similar outbursts. The phenomenon, however, has drawn staunch criticism from others, with some claiming that audience participation had “ruined” the theatrical experience for them.
A Minecraft Movie is playing in theaters now.
