Chicken Jockey mania continues at the nation’s multiplexes. No. Seriously.

And that is driving “A Minecraft Movie” into the cinematic stratosphere, a runaway hit that should clear $80 million this weekend, when earlier projections had pointed towards a $65 million or so second Fri-Sun.

It’s gamer-friendly eye candy and not much of a movie, but “Minecraft” opened at over $162 million last weekend, so a 50-60% falloff is to be expected. With folks dragging chickens to cinemas and mayhem breaking out over the rarely-seen “Chicken Jockey” game feature, all bets are off. It’s a scene, man.

Jack Black and Jason Momoa have a fresh blockbuster on their resumes, and Jared Hess gets a nice boost to his post-“Napoleon Dynamite” directing career.

In any event, “Minecraft’s” created a “rising tide lifts all boats” phenomenon at the box office.

“The King of Kings,” Angel Studios’ animated cute and kid-friendy Life of Jesus is opening big enough to make the “Chosen” folks jealous. It is on track or an $17.6 million opening weekend, based on Thursday night and Friday’s take. Animation’s higher cost mean that they’ll need to keep packing theaters past Easter in order to have a prayer of breaking even on it, but it’s a good faith-based picture and could have legs.

The heavily-promoted Rami Malek vengeance/spy vehicle “The Amateur” is giving the Oscar winner a hit, with 20th Century Studios cashing in to the tune of $15 million from ticket buyers this weekend. He’s great in it, and there are some good supporting performances bolstering a perfectly watchable if far-fetched thriller.

“Warfare” doesn’t have much star power, much that’s novel or new or much of a story, for that matter, But the Ray Mendoza/Alex Jones day-in-the-life Iraq War combat picture will open at the $8 million mark.

“Drop” is a horrific thriller from the director who made “Happy Death Day” a thing. It’s not enough of a horror film to point to it and note how badly most horror titles have underperformed this year. But “White Lotus” star Meghann Fahy and a cast of lesser names is not proving much of a draw. Tepid entertainment or not, it won’t quote reach $8 (7.5-$7.8) at this rate.

The second half of “The Chosen” series episodes recreating “The Last Supper” will not crack the top five, but a $6-6.5 million “Part 2″opening is found money for that franchise. 

One more update coming on this port Sunday afternoon.