Phil Lord and Chris Miller's The LEGO Movie is an undisputed hit. Opening just two weeks ago, the animated adventure made an impressive $69 million in its opening (going in with a reported $60 million budget) and has since managed to accumulate more than $200 worldwide. Even better, the film was a massive hit with critics, and currently has a 96% rating on Rotten Tomatoes (163 reviews collected and only six of them negative). It was inevitable that this success would eventually lead to a sequel, but only now has it become official. Warner Bros. has officially announced that they will be making a LEGO Movie sequel that will be coming out in 2017.
Rather than keeping the franchise stuck in winter, however, the follow-up will be doing some season hopping. The studio hopes that the first movie's big success will translate to the summer blockbuster months, as the untitled sequel will be in theaters on May 26, 2017. As you probably could have guessed, the date is so far in the future that it doesn't currently have any direct release date competition, but there are some big titles that are orbiting around it. Marvel Studios has already planted a flag in the May 5, 2017 weekend, while Fox/DreamWorks Animation/Blue Sky Studios have carved out a spot on June 16th of that year. Obviously as we get closer to the date things will get a lot tighter and release date shifts could change the whole dynamic.
What remains unclear is exactly how The LEGO Movie sequel will operate. A few weeks ago Jared Stern (Mr. Poppers Penguins) and Michelle Morgan were hired to pen the screenplay for the project, but it's unclear if that means writer/directors Lord and Miller (who are credited with most of the first film's success) won't be coming back. It's also unknown if the follow-up will continue the tale of Emmet (voiced by Chris Pratt) and take place in the same world, or if it will be something entirely different. I'm personally hoping for the latter, as the whole point of LEGO is that you never have the build the same thing twice.
The LEGO Movie is the best feature that I've seen so far in 2014, and provided the sequel can match its amazing spirit and smart themes we shouldn't have a problem. There's always the risk that The LEGO Movie 2 could end up being exactly the film we all were dreading when the first movie came out, but let's hope for the best, shall we? After all, everything is awesome!
