Franchise Killers: The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part
https://lebeauleblog.com/2020/02/08/franchise-killers-the-lego-movie-2-the-second-part/
The Second Partshare
Undeterred, Warner Brothers moved forward with a proper follow-up to the first movie. You could see where the ninja movie would be a one-off. But surely, audiences would return to theaters for the further adventures of Emmet Brickowski and Wyldstyle. (You remembered their names from the first movie, didn’t you?)
A five year gap isn’t a deal breaker for most movie franchises, but it can be a problem for a family film. The kids who went to see the first Lego Movie in theaters had mostly grown out of it by 2017. Those who were still into Legos had plenty of alternatives. There are umpteen direct-to-video Lego movies and shows not to mention the spin-off movies that almost certainly diluted the brand.
One of the factors that contributed to the first movie’s great success (and to a lesser extent the success of Lego Batman) was the number of adults without kids who bought tickets. But adults largely stayed home from Lego Movie 2 despite pretty positive reviews. Why?
It wasn’t competition. 2019 got off to a sluggish start. The Second Part got caught up in that trend. People just weren’t going to the movies and a second helping of Lego wasn’t enough to change that behavior pattern. I think you can blame a marketing campaign that failed to sell the sequel as anything more than a rehash.
An Awesome Future?
Officially, Warner Brothers is still planning to release a sequel to Lego Batman. But the plug was pulled on other Lego spin-offs like The Billion Brick Race which would have sent up movies like It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and Cannonball Run. But the studio has let the rights to future Lego movies revert back to the toy company.
Recently, it was announced that Universal was in talks to start making its own Lego movies. The characters created for the Warner Brothers movies (Emmet and Wildstyle) would not be included in that deal. So whatever shakes out, it won’t be a continuation of The Lego Movie.