With the surprise opening of the original The Lego Movie in 2014; including rave reviews, various critic awards and solid box office numbers estimated around a whopping 469.1 million USD worldwide, things looked optimistic for the toy mega-franchise. The release of the well-received and self-aware The Lego Batman Movie in 2017 injected another 312 million USD into it. The Lego Ninjago Movie came soon after, rendered somewhat forgettable underneath the shadow of its predecessors, making 123.1 million USD at the box office. Yet, a considerable amount of time had passed since the initial Lego Movie, and the excitement of a sequel has faded from the general audience's consciousness. The trailers and marketing came in late 2018, and it didn’t seem that the movie was on that many peoples’ radars.
Lego Movie 2: The Second Part opened on February 8, 2019 to decent reception, fans and critics citing a fun and zany story albeit subject to the law of diminishing returns. So far, it has grossed 103 million worldwide against a budget of $99 million plus millions worth of marketing costs. While it isn’t necessarily a failure, it still fell below Alita: Battle Angel, which is currently leading one of the slowest President Day weekends in over a decade with the latter making a 27.8 million haul. The obvious question is apparent; what happened? Well, the 5-year gap between the first and its sequel did not bode well for its prospects, as there are exceptions to the saying “absence makes the heart grow fonder”. Phil Lord and Chris Miller returned to pen and produce the Lego Movie follow-up, ensuring narrative and quality consistency across the movies, but it still wasn’t enough to boost its numbers. The first Lego movie came at somewhat of a cultural zeitgeist, a lightning-in-a-bottle affair, and its timing was just right. If this sequel had come sooner, perhaps, it would’ve done as well as it deserves.
Lego Movie 2: The Second Part is currently playing in theaters worldwide.
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