‘The Lego Movie’: Is It The Next Big Animated Franchise?
The Lego Movie has been a massive success, possibly more than the creators imagined it would be. The cool part is that it came out at a time when movies typically don’t perform major box office numbers. Disney’s Frozen was a clear top favorite from 2013 into this year, but The Lego Movie came out a bit later on. This was strategic, as it helped The Lego Movie gain more numbers box office wise and without much family competition, it was able to steal big money at theaters.
Frozen‘s release of a sing-a-long movie didn’t help The Lego Movie, but it didn’t seem to hurt it either. The budget for the film was a cool $60 million, even with a ton of big name celebrities. The movie has been able to manage $335 million at the box office since hitting theaters on February 7.
Frozen has had the biggest numbers between the two, as it has made over a billion at the box office combing the first release on November 27 in the United States along with the sing-a-long version this year.
Disney was smart in it’s release of Frozen, while Warner Bros who distributed The Lego Movie might just have the better long-term product.
Looking at one-off Disney movies such as The Lion King, there have been branch offs of Disney’s major films but nothing that brought the same magic sequel wise to big name films if there was one at all. So movies such as Aladdin may have gone well in the 1990’s, they at least had the room to do a sequel to the film. With Frozen, it does not seem to have the same ability.
Unlike with an Aladdin when there was room, Frozen kind of closed the door on another theatrical release that could bring the same effect. Even with Aladdin, the two movies afterward did not live up to the magic of the first, as neither ended up in theaters. A small series was made to keep the characters alive, but again, nothing was able to capture the magic of the first film.
Disney has rarely been able to make a sequel to an animated film that did anything remotely worth note to the first film. Pixar, a Disney product since 2006 has been able to produce powerful sequels. Toy Story as well as Cars, even the Monsters franchise have all been able to produce great numbers.
Toy Story might be the only animated franchise to produce the numbers it has, but two of these were done before Disney bought Pixar. Simply put, Disney does not work well with sequels.
The Lego Movie had it all and could continue to come up with magic for each film. On top of that, they managed to keep a $60 million budget. The Lego Movie 2 is already in production, and most feel that it won’t be too long before we see a major Lego Movie franchise the likes of a Toy Story.
Warner Bros. may have distributed the film but The Lego Group clearly has a lot of say in how their product is used. Keep in mind, this is a toy company at heart. However video games and now films are making the product of The Lego Group move up. The Lego Movie was also not overdone. It was 100 minutes and a clear family comedy, making parents more than open to buying Lego products for their children.
Marketing wise, it’s brilliant. You have a toy that you’re watching on screen and obviously Warner Bros. are allowing the use of their characters such as Batman and Harry Potter. So now you have an open product for Legos and Warner Bros. to make more money on.
Then, on top of all of that you are able to see multiple Lego movies. Franchise wise, The Lego Group could literally make a billion or two because of this movie through toys, DVD/Blu-Ray sales, and much more. Of course, that does not include what is possible for Lego Movie 2, whenever it is released. A low budget was combined with a powerful cast that included the likes of Morgan Freeman, Elizabeth Banks, Will Ferrell, Chris Pratt, and more.
The movie itself received almost all positive ratings, making this more than a marketing film. Rather, it was a good one that made us laugh and forget about our troubles. Isn’t that what a movie should do? Families can see it together, and even the parents love being there to see it.
Most considered this to be a 90-100 minute commercial for The Lego Group and Warner Bros. So it was great that a story was put in for us to enjoy. The brilliance was there as well because of the fact that it’s Legos in a movie, so literally the entire movie was a business masterpiece by The Lego Group and Warner Bros.
We already know Lego Movie 2 is coming, but could Lego Movie 3 and 4 be possible as well? Time will tell. For my money however, we should count on this being the next big animated movie franchise.
