Box Office: Why Universal Poached LEGO From Warner Bros

Whether or not Universal can restore LEGO to its former The LEGO Movie-level glory, it’ll be a useful piece of animated IP alongside Illumination, DreamWorks and Nintendo.

In yesterday’s news today, Universal
UHS
made it official, cementing a previously “in talks” five-year exclusivity deal with LEGO for theatrical features. The two companies have previously collaborated on Jurassic World: The Secret Exhibit and a 13-episode mini-series entitled LEGO Jurassic World: Legend of Isla Nublar. We can only hope that LEGO is/was more than a one-trick pony.

It is another intriguing example of Universal snatching another studios’ successful property and forging ahead accordingly. LEGO follows the proverbial path blazed by New Line’s Dumb and Dumber, Sony’s Hellboy, MGM’s Child’s Play, Miramax’s Bridget Jones’ Diary, Lionsgate’s Kick-Ass and Warner Bros.’ Pacific Rim. There’s a different “reason” for every example above.

For example, MGM thought the Chucky series was beneath it, Hellboy II: The Golden Army ($160 million on an $85 million budget) was part of a four-movie “action package” in the summer of 2008 (alongside Wanted, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor and Marvel’s The Incredible Hulk) and Pacific Rim: Uprising ($290 million/$150 million) debuted during Legendary’s brief partnership with the Comcast
CMCSA
-owned studio.

Of note, Bridget Jones’ Baby earned $212 million worldwide on a $35 million budget in 2016, Dumb and Dumber To earned $170 million on a $40 million budget in late 2014 and Kick-Ass 2 was a classic “folks were only curious the first time” sequel in summer 2013. While plenty of big franchises from small studios (or indie flicks that broke out) have ended up at bigger studios for a sequel or reboot, it’s a little unusual for a major studio to snag their competitor’s sloppy seconds on the regular.

Universal’s homegrown successes notwithstanding (Fast & Furious, Jurassic, Pitch Perfect, Illumination, etc.), their periodic pattern of the “part 2” to another studio’s “part 1” bearing the Universal logo has always intrigued me. The bigger question is whether LEGO is of use.

Warner Bros. scored huge in 2014 with The LEGO Movie, offering a surprisingly good original story, a deconstruction of both the “white guy discovers he’s the special” blockbuster template of the post 9/11 era and the general sameness of the blockbuster narrative. It was a classic example of using the protection of a valuable IP to go a little nuts in terms of story and themes. It opened with $69 million and legged out to $258 million domestic and $468 million global cume on a $60 million budget.

The LEGO Batman Movie grossed $175 million domestic and $311 million worldwide on an $80 million budget in 2017. But LEGO Ninjago Movie earned just $123 million on a $70 million budget in late 2017, while The LEGO Movie 2 earned $191 million on a $99 million budget. Not only were these massive comedowns from their predecessors, they were less than Warner Bros.’ Storks ($183 million in 2016) and Smallfoot ($214 million in 2018). When your original toons make more than the IP-specific toons, that’s a problem with the IP.

The LEGO Movie and The LEGO Batman Movie sold themselves as a cultural event for adults and kids. The next two were treated as just for kids and not that different from the copious direct-to-DVD/VOD LEGO movies that had since saturated the marketplace. The LEGO Movie 2 was just one animated sequel that took a huge drop from its predecessor.

Despite being as good as (if not better than) the first films, Secret Life of Pets 2 (from $875 million to $430 million), LEGO Movie 2 ($468 million/$192 million) and Angry Birds Movie 2 ($352 million/$155 million) all dipped way below their respective predecessors. I still maintain that this was a major factor in allowing Trolls: World Tour to go straight to “premium Video On Demand” instead of waiting for theaters to re-open.

Nonetheless, Deadline is reporting that Secret Life of Pets 2 still earned, including post-theatrical revenue, around $118 million in profits. If I may be optimistic for a moment, I might argue that LEGO at Universal will be under less pressure to keep a studio’s entire animation branch afloat, as was frankly the case with Warner Bros.

As much success as Warner Media has had with original and established IP before it was cool (Batman, The Matrix, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, etc.), they’ve continuously struggled with theatrical animation. Save for a periodic Space Jam ($250 million in 1996 on an $80 million budget) or LEGO Movie, WB’s feature animation department is better known for Quest for Camelot-ish misses.

Universal has scored huge with the Illumination brand as the French studio supplanted DreamWorks Animation as the proverbial “second-only-to-Disney
DIS
” animation giant. Meanwhile, Comcast bought DWA. The LEGO brand will go along with potential Nintendo projects as known brands inside a studio which is on a current animation-specific hot streak.

Putting aside what this means for Warner Bros. (I’m trying not to read too much into James Wan developing that new monster movie at Universal and not New Line), an over/under $75 million LEGO feature will fit right in with the $70-$90 million Illumination flicks and the $75-$125 million DWA toons. It just won’t be responsible for holding up the entire castle, as is now the case for Warner Bros.’ eventual Space Jam sequel.