Minecraft movie

[Frank Cox]

Wow.

I haven't seen a crowd like this in years.

I watched the movie the other day and didn't think it was up to much, but I guess it wasn't made for an old coot like me. I've never seen the Minecraft game so that's probably a big part of why I didn't get it.

But I sure packed 'em in tonight (first night it was here) and everyone seemed to have a wonderful time. I heard one guy telling his friends on the way out, "This was the best experience I've had in my whole life!"

Hopefully it'll continue like this for the rest of the week.

I guess people will still come to movies if it's the right movie.

Unfortunately, there aren't many of those any more.

[Ryan Gallagher]

I’ve heard gamer fans rave about the fact it did not take itself too seriously, they were not trying to make high art, and in many respects it is perhaps intentionally bad, almost a parody of itself. Which that audience thrives on. If it is a bit cringe, that is a plus in their book.

[Ryan Gallagher]

I would predict it starts with a bang and falls off the cliff rather quickly? Unless the children and family tickets sustain it, it has fairly niche broader audience appeal.

[Harold Hallikainen]

I've been reading about near riots during this movie. Some theaters will not allow teenagers without an adult.

I also have never seen the game Minecraft. I never became interested in video games. Back when I first started using CAD for PCB design (Dasoft software on a Cromemco CP/M computer), I thought they should make that an arcade game. Points would be the count of vias. The lowest score wins. And, if you win, you get to route another board for free!

[Randy Stankey]

Points would be the count of vias. The lowest score wins.

After working in a circuit board shop, I wonder how many people would actually realize how funny that is!

[Ryan Gallagher]

I’m 48, and although my age group is not the target demographic, there were plenty of peers that were early adopters of Minecraft in the early free Java versions, primarily because of the open world concepts and you could host your own servers. Basically a bunch of young adult sys-admins that thought it was fun. Most grew out of it though as it went mainstream.

But I also got the VIAs joke. Learned Autocad (command based versuon) on a 486 as a summer job in HS. Not for PCB design. Our game was set your viewport to enable the most edits before changing it and getting a coffee while it redraws.

[Frank Cox]

I've been reading about near riots during this movie. Some theaters will not allow teenagers without an adult.

Last night was close to a sellout and it was pretty wild. Tonight was about half of last night, and it was a lot tamer.

When I started the Friday night show I went into the auditorium everyone was talking so I walked to the front and yelled "EVERYBODY SHUT UP!!"

That worked, for a while at least.

(And I got a round of applause.)

Tonight everyone seemed to be a little more housebroken.

I've never seen Minecraft (the game), but everyone who has come so far seems to love it so I'm happy.

[Randy Stankey]

I dabbled with Minecraft. It's a fun game but I don't get into that kind of game. I'd rather play card games like cribbage.

I learned to play cribbage in college. We used to play for beer. Yes, if you got skunked you would owe your opponent two beers!
Unfortunately, I don't know anybody who knows how to play cribbage and the only way to play is against a computer.

Games like Pac-Man and Space Invaders are the ones I grew up on but the thing I REALLY love to play is good, old fashioned pinball!

If somebody would make a pinball machine with a cribbage theme, I'd be all over that!

As to the Minecraft movie... My girlfriend plays Minecraft. If she wants to go, I'd take her. I'd probably enjoy it. I've seen the trailers. I got most of the jokes.
Sure! It'd be fun!

[Brad Miller]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZzIq9D3OqA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOuBPaUNWHk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C11O3vDBcA4

[Ryan Gallagher]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZzIq9D3OqA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOuBPaUNWHk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C11O3vDBcA4

At this point trashing the places IS the meme. We are doomed.

[Ryan Gallagher]

My guess at the chain of events. 1st couple day audiences were loud and participatory during the key moments, but not necessarily destructive, but then a large batch of kids going as a group got the idea to go over the top throwing popcorn and try to make a viral TikTok out of it. They succeeded. And it has only escalated from there in imitation of the meme. WIth this audience, meme participation has as much or more draw than anything on screen.

Good luck trying to stick to the no phones policies. Everyone is going to want to record how their particular audience handles those moments.

[Mike Blakesley]

This movie is nuts. I was expecting "good" not "huge" out of it. But last week, we were sold out Friday night, Saturday night, and the Sunday matinee, so we added a second matinee which got about a third full. Then it was pretty tepid all week, only to be sold out again for today's matinee, and we had at least two-thirds full houses on Friday and Saturday this week. So we'll probably be keeping it a third week. We've had a lot of repeat customers too.

We haven't had any of the screwball antics that have gone viral. Maybe that's a big city thing? Even with the teenagers we've had, everyone has been good. (So far!)

[David Ferguson]

I spoke to a cinema owner friend last weekend, and he has been enforcing the no-phones policy. First by playing a video he recorded of himself saying "If you have your phone out, you'll be kicked out" at the start of every performance, and then by actually enforcing that. He said he had to kick a few people out, but it didn't sound like it had been at the level others have experienced...

[Ryan Gallagher]

I did notice that some of Brad’s YT links have been taken down already, I wonder if the studio is flexing It’s copyright takedown option to put a damper on the worst (in their eye) of the meme examples.

[Mike Blakesley]

I noticed a couple of teenage girls in the back row a few nights ago take out their phones and start recording, right before the "chicken jockey" moment that sets off all the hoopla. I decided to let them have their fun. As before, nothing happened.

One more night to go. So far, so good. Of course now, crowds are thinned down to the point where if anyone does anything, we'll know exactly who it was, so they're not likely going to do it at this point.