Minecraft Showed How Much the Movie Business Needs Creators
- Mike Shields
- Apr 7
- 2 min read
But these two very different worlds have a ways to go before unlocking their combined potential
This post is part of a special three-part series on the state of the video advertising sector, produced in partnership with National CineMedia
Until this past weekend, the movie business had been off to a rough start this year. 2025 was supposed to be a post-Covid, post-writer’s strike renaissance year, yet the box office was actually down 7 percent versus last year.
Meanwhile, the creator economy continues to boom, as the entertainment preferences among younger generations become clearer - they are creator and social platform-first.
Per Deloitte: “56% of Gen Zs report that social media content is more relevant to them than traditional content like TV shows and movies.”
The same goes for 43% of millennials
Which begs the question - is the movie business doing enough to engage with the Creatorverse - and vice versa? Don’t these two worlds need each other?
At least, this was the Big Sweeping Lead I was planning to start this post with - until Minecraft’s massive success blew the doors off the narrative.
The movie grossed a stunning $150.7 million in the US and $313.2 million globally, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
Not only did Minecraft feature several creators (including DanTDM who has 29 million subscribers on YouTube), but the Minecraft/YouTube world had been talking about the movie for months, and the trailer had generated so many memes that some theaters reported chaos surrounding certain scenes.
Julia Moonves, SVP, Advertising Sales & Brand Partnerships at Pocketwatch, said that Warner Bros. tapped her company to help create promotional Minecraft videos with “OG Minecraft creator, Captain Sparklez.”
“Young audiences are cheering for Minecraft jokes and memes within the film,” she said. “And we know who got them there.”
So maybe Hollywood’s got this creator thing all figured out. Well…
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