Cooper Hood is the Associate Editor for all new movie releases, in theaters and on streaming. In addition to writing articles about these titles and upcoming releases, he also oversees content planning for each, ensuring that ScreenRant continues to cover major releases for months after their release.
He has written various reviews for ScreenRant that appear on Rotten Tomatoes, coordinated Oscars and San Diego Comic-Con coverage, appeared on CNN to talk about Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, and done select interviews with talent over the years.
Most franchises overstay their welcome nowadays. The Lord of the Rings, Fast & Furious, and Transformers have continued to push forward, even when quality dipped. John Wick, Mission: Impossible, Predator, Alien, and others have kept interest high by delivering new installments that audiences adore.
As a result, it’s unusual for studios to call it quits on a franchise too early. Hollywood would typically rather try one more entry to keep the IP alive or make up for past mistakes, like with Jurassic World and Indiana Jones. But, there is one franchise from the 2010s that had four movies and made $1.1 billion that should have lasted a lot longer instead of ending too soon.
The LEGO Movie Franchise Ended 7 Years Ago Today
That’s what happened with Warner Bros.’s The LEGO Movie franchise, which ran from 2014 to 2019, with The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part marking the unexpected final chapter. That entry hit theaters seven years ago today, on February 8, 2019. And despite a warm response to it, this proved to be the last time Warner Bros. Animation would venture into the animated world revolving around the toy building blocks.
Even after all this time, it’s sad to me that the series didn’t continue after The LEGO Movie 2. WB struck gold with the original 2014 movie written and directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. It received rave reviews (96% on Rotten Tomatoes) and did gangbusters at the box office (earning $468 million worldwide). The only logical response was more LEGO movies.
WB did just that, firing up a Batman spinoff for Will Arnett, another spinoff based on the Ninjago series of the bricks, and the 2019 direct sequel. And there were plans for more. A racing-based movie, The Billion Brick Race, and a sequel to The LEGO Batman Movie, tentatively titled LEGO Superfriends, that would’ve leaned more into Batman’s adventures with the Justice League were both in development but eventually canceled.
Why The LEGO Movie Franchise Ended After Four Movies
So why didn’t we see more LEGO movies from Warner Bros.? There are two primary reasons. The first is that the studio began to question the true appetite for this series after The LEGO Movie 2 came out. While the sequel received favorable reviews (84% on RT), it failed to come close to the original’s box office, making only $199 million worldwide.
After the first movie made nearly half a billion, The LEGO Batman Movie earned $312 million, a strong, respectable outcome for the DC spinoff. But things took a turn in 2018 when The LEGO Ninjago Movie received mixed reviews and only managed to make $123 million. That put more pressure on The LEGO Movie 2 to pop and give WB financial confidence in extending the series.
That didn’t happen, with the studio electing not to renew its rights to LEGO’s big screen presence. This led to Universal swooping in to snag a five-year deal in 2020 to produce new LEGO movies based on the IP, which has so far only resulted in Pharrell Williams’ LEGO biopic Piece by Piece in 2024.
But thanks to the rights switching studios, there currently is no pathway for the original LEGO Movie franchise to continue, even if WB had a change of heart.
The LEGO Movie Franchise Was Still Great When It Ended
The disappointment with the franchise coming to a close seven years ago is that it deserved to keep going based on the quality, even if the LEGO Movie franchise’s box office was in decline.
The original movie is one of the better animated movies of the 2010s for my money, with it truly capturing the imaginative feeling of building with these toy bricks. It’s Chris Pratt’s best animated movie, and Will Ferrell as Lord Business is hysterical. The ultimate emotional throughline revealed at the conclusion is really great, as are any of the building sequences.
The LEGO Batman Movie showed how fun the concept was when paired with an existing IP that wasn’t afraid to make fun of itself and its very serious leading hero. And with it hilariously using some of WB’s biggest franchises in the third act, the possibilities of LEGO movies for Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, and Beetlejuice practically write themselves.
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The LEGO Ninjago Movie is where the series lost its way the most, not striking the right balance of comedy and fun characters that the other three films hold, but it’s still okay.
The LEGO Movie 2 doesn’t hit the highs of the first film, but its still very entertaining, funny, and thematically strong. The fact that this is where the story ultimately ended for Emmet, Wyldstyle, and the rest of the characters is a real shame. The core concept still worked and certainly had room to keep going.
An argument could be made that it’s good that the franchise ended when it did, before everything became too familiar or stale. But I would’ve loved to see at least one more film in the main series to complete that trilogy and/or another LEGO Batman before they wrapped it up.
If WB had been a bit more patient with the series and let it grow a bit more, I feel like it would’ve regained its footing and become a cornerstone brand partnership in the 2020s. Instead, The LEGO Movie 2 ended the series too soon, and while it was still delivering strong results.
8.0/10 9/10 The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part 10 stars 9 stars 8 stars 7 stars 6 stars 5 stars 4 stars 3 stars 2 stars 1 star Like Follow Followed A Action Adventure Animation Comedy Family Release Date February 7, 2019 Runtime 107 minutes Director Mike Mitchell Writers Phil Lord, Chris Miller Producers Phil Lord, Roy Lee, Dan Lin, Jinko Gotoh, Jon Burton, Kristen Murtha, Sharon Taylor Cast See All Chris Pratt Emmet Brickowski / Rex Dangervest (voice) Elizabeth Banks Wyldstyle / Lucy (voice)
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