The Lego Movie built up a sizable audience at the box office over the weekend.
Although the movie had some very stiff competition from George Clooney’s drama The Monuments Men , the World War II flick ultimately couldn’t compete with the family-friendly flick.
According to Box Office Mojo , The Lego Movie generated an extremely impressive $69 million in receipts over the span of three days. This is reportedly the second-highest opening for February in history.
“I can’t imagine this not turning into a long-term franchise. This is such a runaway success that Warner Bros is now a major player in the animated genre,” Rentrak senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian told The Associated Press .
Not only was The Lego movie a hit at the box office, it also earned universal praise from critics. The flick’s Rotten Tomatoes score is presently perched at 95 percent out of 132 reviews. The critical praise, combined with positive word-of-mouth, will likely help the film continue its dominance at the box office next weekend.
However, Clooney’s $70 million endeavor managed to outpace the rest of the competition during the weekend. The flick grossed $22 million from moviegoers, allowing it to easily slip into the number two position.
“It’s right where we hoped to be. There’s a lot of love for George and the ensemble cast,” Sony Pictures said in a statement.
Of course, not all of last week’s newcomers found an audience at the cineplex. Vampire Academy , an adaptation of the popular young adult novels, only managed to scrape together $3.9 million from moviegoers . It’s unclear how this will affect The Weinstein Company’s decision to move forward with additional installments of the series.
The rest of the weekend’s top 10 consisted of films that have already generated tidy sums of money. Ride Along , Frozen , and Lone Survivor continued to make serious cinematic bank, as did That Awkward Moment and the animated feature The Nut Job .
The long-awaited remake of the classic 80s action flick RoboCop finally hits theaters this week (February 12). Although it’s unclear how well the movie will perform with folks in the United States, the reboot has already generated around $20 million from moviegoers overseas. Unfortunately, José Padilha’s movie is receiving some bad reviews .
Check out this weekend’s top 10 below.
1. The Lego Movie – $69 million 2. The Monuments Men – $22 million 3. Ride Along – $9.5 million 4. Frozen – $6.8 million 5. Lone Survivor – $5.5 million 6. That Awkward Moment – $5.2 million 7. Vampire Academy – $3.9 million 8. The Nut Job – $3.7 million 9. Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit – $3.5 million 10. Labor Day – $3.1 million
Are you surprised that The Lego Movie cleaned up at the box office last weekend? Are you planning to catch the flick on the big screen?