The blockbuster that rocked the multiplex
CHICKEN JOCKEYS? LAVA ANTHEMS? STEVE?! EMPIRE DISSECTS THE FAN-FUELLED PHENOMENON BEHIND A MINECRAFT MOVIE
WORDS BETH WEBB
Giddy up, it’s time for Chicken Jockey
“IT WAS VERY much like that scene in Apocalypse Now.” Isaac Mahaffey, an American filmmaker and YouTuber, is describing the energy at an opening-day screening of A Minecraft Movie. It was 5.30pm on Friday 4 April, and middle school had just let out when he headed down to his local AMC in Austin, Texas. Over the course of the film, the cinema descended into pandemonium: 11-to-13-year-olds were jumping on seats, popcorn flying through the air as familiar characters and lingo appeared on screen. During the end credits, smaller kids took to the aisles dancing, Footloose-style. It was at this point that a child turned to Mahaffey and, similar to Martin Sheen’s Captain Willard in the Vietnam war epic, asked who was in charge. “I hadn’t ever seen a movie theatre erupt like that before,” Mahaffey concludes, baffled.