Is it just me, or has there been a resurgence of going to the movie theater in the 2020s. It had been long thought that streaming was going to kill theaters, and while it has certainly had an impact, it hasn't been lost as a space where massive cultural events take place. In the 2010s, all these massive movies were, for the most part, superhero movies or Star Wars. But this decade, you never really know what's going to be the next biggest film sensation.
We've had some pretty weird movie movements this decade mostly driven by memes. There was the Sonic movie right before the pandemic in 2020, we came back to theaters with Minions 2: The Rise of Gru and the "Gentleminions" trend, then we had "Barbenheimer" in 2023. But my favorite meme movie of the last few years has got to be 2025's "A Minecraft Movie".
There's something about going into a movie that you know is going to bad yet you have immense excitement for. Minecraft is a game I have been playing for over a decade, so when I first heard a Minecraft movie was in development, I got pretty excited. However I learned the movie was being made like 10 years ago, and unfortunately the project seemed like a mess for a long time. Eventually though we finally got to see what the movie would look like in late 2024:
"What… the hell… is this?"
"This doesn't look good," I thought, but I wasn't fully convinced it would be terrible. It's Minecraft, they could make something great out of it! It sure did look ugly though.
From the jump though, the memes were flowing. There was that moment of… well, I don't know what it was, but we all had it when we first saw Jack Black in that blue sweater say "I… am STEVE!".
As we got closer, I don't think I got more convinced it would be good, but I did get more excited to see it. What I was fully convinced of was it's meme value. And boy was I right.
A Minecraft Movie became a meme phenomenon from the moment it opened in theaters, especially for kids. Kids would hear Jack Black say "CHICKEN JOCKEY" and go absolutely berserk, throwing their popcorn everywhere. It got so bad that they had to start issuing specific warnings for people watching the movie so it wouldn't get out of control.
One of many Chicken Jockey freak outs
To me though, all of this never rubbed me the wrong way. This was one of the first memes I enjoyed that was entirely driven by kids. It was their excitement to see Jack Black say "FLINT AND STEEL" on the big screen that drove this trend, and you know what—I get it!
I eventually saw A Minecraft Movie a few weeks later. Was it good? No. But I had a wonderful time because that child in me that thought it was so funny to hear Jack Black say things like "SLIME CUBE". Things that I could only dream about would ever be uttered by a Jack Black-caliber actor.
Over a year later I still quote "Chicken Jockey". Maybe that's because I'm a boomer holding onto a long dead meme, but it just doesn't get all that old. Not many memes of the last few years seemed this funny to me. And maybe, there might not be another again.
Oh god, maybe I am getting old!
