Summary

• The Lego Movie grossed $467 million and launched sequels and spinoffs, but the franchise hasn't released a new film in five years.
• The Lego Batman Movie capitalized on the popularity of Batman as a character, becoming a critical and box office success.
• The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part was a box office bomb, causing Warner Bros. to relinquish the movie and TV rights to the Lego brand.

The Lego Movie franchise is a billion-dollar property with more than a few blockbuster movies under its belt, so why is it not a thriving cinematic universe? When a film adaptation of the Lego construction toys was first announced, it seemed to be a Hollywood cash grab like The Angry Birds Movie, using the power of cinema to a product and generate some corporate synergy. But Phil Lord and Christopher Miller ended up delivering a surprisingly great movie. The Lego Movie is emotional, hilarious, and wildly entertaining, layering its blatant product placement with rich stories and characters.

When it hit theaters in 2014, The Lego Movie earned universally positive reviews from critics – scoring a near-perfect approval rating of 96% on Rotten Tomatoes – and became a blockbuster success at the box office. It seemed like the sky was the limit for this new franchise. Not only could The Lego Movie be followed up with sequels in the mainline saga; it could be spun off into movies based on specific Lego toy lines and licensed brands. So, why is The Lego Movie currently dead in the water and not a thriving blockbuster franchise?

The Lego Movie Grossed $467 Million And Launched A Franchise

The Lego Movie was quickly followed by a sequel and two spinoffs

The Lego Movie might not have cracked the top 10 highest-grossing movies of 2014, but it still made a very respectable global box office gross. The Lego Movie pulled in a worldwide box office haul of $467,576,428 on a budget of $60 million (via The Numbers). The general rule of thumb is that movies need to gross around 2.5 times their production budget in order to turn a profit. The Lego Movie grossed 7.8 times its budget, so it was way, way in the black. Hollywood has jumped on board a potential franchise for a lot less.

Man of Steel didn’t have that kind of multiplier and Warner Bros. followed it up with the doomed DC Extended Universe. Naturally, The Lego Movie’s success launched a franchise. It was followed by a direct sequel, The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part, as well as two spinoff films, The Lego Batman Movie and The Lego Ninjago Movie. All four of these Lego movies did well at the box office (with two minor disappointments), but the franchise hasn’t released a new film in five years. So, what happened to this once-flourishing franchise?

The Lego Batman Movie Capitalized On The Franchise's Most Popular Character

A Batman-centric spinoff was a very wise move

While Chris Pratt’s Emmet Brickowski, Will Ferrell’s Lord Business, and Elizabeth Banks’ Wyldstyle were all well-received, their popularity was nothing compared to The Lego Movie’s most beloved character. Will Arnett stole the show as a self-parodying Lego version of Batman. It was a really wise move for Warner Bros. to follow up The Lego Movie with a Batman-centric spinoff entitled The Lego Batman Movie in 2017. This capitalized on the original film’s most popular character (who also happens to be one of the most recognizable icons in pop culture) – and it was a really great movie.

Despite its huge potential for disappointment, The Lego Batman Movie emerged as not only a worthy successor to The Lego Movie, but one of the best Batman movies. The Lego Batman Movie is great, because it satirizes the Batman mythos while still telling a genuinely moving story about Bruce Wayne’s deep-seated loneliness. The Lego Batman Movie earned a 90% Rotten Tomatoes score and replicated its predecessor’s box office success. It didn’t quite gross as much as The Lego Movie, but it earned $310,563,096 on an $80 million budget (via The Numbers), which is pretty impressive.

The Lego Ninjago Movie Was A Strange Move For The Series After Batman

The Lego Movie franchise's winning streak ended fast with The Lego Ninjago Movie

After the back-to-back success of The Lego Movie and The Lego Batman Movie, the franchise suffered its first box office bomb with The Lego Ninjago Movie, later in 2017. The Lego Ninjago Movie grossed just $122,737,201 on its $70 million budget (via The Numbers). This wasn’t a total disaster – it did make back its production costs and some of its marketing costs – but compared to the blockbuster success of the previous two films, it was a pretty notable flop. The underperformance of The Lego Ninjago Movie ended The Lego Movie franchise’s winning streak fast.

It was an odd choice to follow up the first two Lego Movie installments with a Lego Ninjago film. Ninjago might be one of Lego’s flagship brands and most popular toy lines, but its fan base doesn’t extend beyond the toys themselves. Whereas Batman appeals to audiences of all ages, even people who have never picked up a Lego brick in their lives, Ninjago only appeals to fans of those martial arts-themed Lego kits. It might be a big enough consumer base to make a toy line profitable, but it’s not big enough to make a mega-budget movie a hit.

The Lego Movie 2's Box Office Killed The Franchise As We Knew It

Even a direct sequel to The Lego Movie couldn't save the franchise

In 2019, The Lego Movie franchise returned with a direct sequel to the original film called The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part. Bringing back Pratt and Banks and Arnett for a proper sequel to The Lego Movie should’ve been enough to course-correct the franchise after the failure of The Lego Ninjago Movie, but The Lego Movie 2 was a box office bomb, too. It cost $99 million to produce, making it the most expensive film in the franchise, but it only grossed $190,131,035 at the worldwide box office (via The Numbers).

The Lego Movie 2 came out around the same time as Captain Marvel and How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, which were both huge hits that took more than their fair share of the family audience. After the box office disappointment of The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part, Warner Bros. chose not to renew its contract for the movie and TV rights to the Lego brand. The I.P. has now found a home with a different studio, Universal, where executives are hoping to revitalize the franchise.

The Lego Movie 3 Is Happening, But It Will Be Very Different

Universal is hoping to jumpstart The Lego Movie franchise

Since Universal acquired the film and television rights to the Lego brand, The Lego Movie 3 is in the works. But it won’t be a straightforward threequel following on from the previous films. Universal is hoping to reinvent the franchise, which could mean starting fresh with a reboot introducing new characters and a new story. The next iteration of The Lego Movie likely won’t be able to use Warners’ prized property, Batman, but it will allow Lego versions of Universal properties like Jurassic Park and Fast & Furious.

Source: The Numbers