The Lego Movie is Totally Awesome at Box Office With Massive $69.1 Million Debut (Updated)

The Lego Movie is Totally Awesome at Box Office With Massive $69.1 Million Debut (Updated)Update: The Lego Movie final opening weekend box office numbers are in and they are a hair lower than the studio estimates that came out on Sunday. Through its first three days of release, The Lego Movie earned Warner Bros. $69,050,279 in North America ticket sales. While the instant hit didn’t reach $70 million, you can bet that discussions about moving forward with a sequel were top of the agenda at the studio today.

The Lego Movie lived up to its increasingly popular signature quote, “everything is awesome,” to become the second-highest opening in the month of February. George Clooney’s The Monument’s Men staved off harsh critical response to grab a decent opening and second place, while Vampire Academy flunked in the latest ill-fated attempt to recapture the young adult success of The Twilight Saga.


Everyone knows Lego and everyone knows Batman, so when you put the two together and enter the weekend buoyed by a 95 percent approval rating at Rotten Tomatoes, it’s going to be all systems go for The Lego Movie. In less than a week its opening weekend forecast jumped from around $30 million to $60 million, and is estimated to wrap its opening weekend at $69.1 million, or roughly a million dollars for every year of the interlocking toy’s existence. That estimate assumes an average Sunday drop-off, and based on what I’ve heard, cinemas were still packed on Sunday afternoon with the “A” CinemaScore and word-of-mouth pushing more families to see the film. A finalized opening weekend in the range of $70 million or more could transpire. The Hollywood scripted advice, “If you build it, they will come” has never rung more true.

George Clooney may have rattled critics with The Monuments Men, but adults still showed up to see the War World II drama starring Clooney, Matt Damon and a great ensemble cast. It tallied $22.7 million and a “B+” CinemaScore; neither of which are great, but Clooney can’t be upset considering it’s the highest opening weekend for any film he’s directed. It was also the most expensive to produce.

Ride Along pulled into third place with $9.4 million, only a 22 percent drop from last weekend. Those dollars were enough to push it over $100 million at $105.2 million, and it officially became the first movie released in 2014 to achieve the mark. The Lego Movie should be the second.

Frozen continues to run hot at the box office and tacked on another $6.9 million to its totals, only a 23 percent decline from a week ago. It’s domestic total now stands at $368.7 million, and thanks to China, the worldwide gross has crossed $900 million and continues to rise. Moviegoers refuse to “let it go.”

That Awkward Moment capped the top five with $5.5 million and likely drew the females who saw their men head off to see The Monuments Men.

The third newcomer this weekend, Vampire Academy, went straight to detention with a pitiful $4.1 million debut. That’s just over half of what Beautiful Creatures bombed with in February of last year, proving once again that the “next Twilight” is far more elusive than previously thought.

The rest of the top-10 rounds out as follows:

6. Lone Survivor (Universal) – $5.3 million, $112.6 million to date

8. The Nut Job (Open Road) – $3.8 million, $55 million to date

9. Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (Paramount) – $3.6 million, $44.5 million to date

10. Labor Day (Paramount) – $3.2 million, $10.2 million to date>

Next weekend will see the RoboCop remake bow early on Wednesday, followed by Friday openers About Last Night, Winter’s Tale and Endless Love, all of which will likely be looking up in the box office standings at The Lego Movie by close of business on Sunday.

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