The best-selling LEGO Batman videogame franchise returns in an out-of-this-world, action-packed adventure! In LEGO Batman™ 3: Beyond Gotham, the Caped Crusader joins forces with the super heroes of the DC Comics universe and blasts off to outer space to stop the evil Brainiac from destroying Earth. Using the power of the Lantern Rings, Brainiac shrinks worlds to add to his twisted collection of miniature cities from across the universe. Now the greatest super heroes and the most cunning villains must unite and journey to different Lantern Worlds to collect the Lantern Rings and stop Brainiac before it’s too late. Exciting space combat - For the first time ever, battle with Batman and his allies in outer space and the various Lantern worlds including Zamaron and Odym. Robust roster of DC Comics heroes and villains - Play and unlock more than 150 unique characters with amazing powers and abilities, including members of the Justice League, and LEGO Big Figures such as Cyborg, Solomon Grundy and more.
Unique storyline with new plots and twists –Surprising disguises, Brainiac’s mind control ability, and the power of the Lantern rings bring a whole new twist to characters you thought you knew. Hack computer terminals - Enter a virtual world to escape mazes, battle in arenas, and race to find the code. Bat-tastic Gadget Wheel - With a simple press of a button, choose and upgrade select character’s suits and abilities. Variety of iconic locales - Visit the Hall of Justice, the Batcave, and the Justice League Watchtower to access shops, trophy rooms, and the hero and vehicle customizers. Mind-blowing Zero-G gameplay adds a whole new dimension to the action. Remix combat in spectacular style by customising the action with all-new LEGO Hazard Builds! Adventure through 45 missions spanning an original storyline focusing on dynamic, fast-paced gameplay. Play as more than 105 characters from the DC Comics universeSaturday Update: Universal’s Fifty Shades Darker led Friday with an estimated $21.5 million opening day, matching our pre-release expectations as it heads toward an opening weekend close to $45 million.
With Valentine’s Day around the corner on Tuesday, it will likely see a sharp drop in business over the weekend before picking up again for the annual date night holiday. Friday’s lead will be short-lived though as The LEGO Batman Movie bowed to $15 million on Friday and will undoubtedly have stronger legs going forward thanks to its family appeal and ecstatic reviews/word of mouth. Notably, however, LEGO Batman came in below our final pre-release expectations as it appears to have over-tracked in usual industry metrics where it had been exceeding the interest levels of 2014’s LEGO Movie (which debuted to a $17.1 million opening Friday) — although, to be fair, social media proved to be a more accurate indicator in this instance. Despite topping Zootopia‘s Thursday evening gross by $500,000 (as reported below), LEGO Batman came in $4.5 million shy of the Disney pic’s overall Friday gross. Still, this is a runaway success for Warner as the film could top out around $58 million this weekend should the family audience drive it on Saturday and Sunday.
With a Presidents Day weekend around the corner next week, staying power remains expected to impress. Meanwhile, John Wick: Chapter 2 posted $11 million on opening day, exceeding the studio’s expectations and coming close to our own final forecast. The well-reviewed action sequel appears to be on course for around $27.5 million this weekend. Key weekend projections are below with official estimates from the studios to follow on Sunday. Thursday Night Report: Kicking off a very busy weekend at the box office, Universal took the early (expected) crown on Thursday evening as Fifty Shades Darker earned $5.72 million from opening shows. While off 33.5 percent from Fifty Shades of Grey‘s $8.6 million Thursday night launch two years ago, that still represents a healthy launching pad for the sequel as fans plan to turn out over the weekend heading into Valentine’s Day on Tuesday. Two films appealing to far different audiences ended up in a virtual tie on Thursday night.
The LEGO Batman Movie earned an excellent $2.2 million in its debut, a 29 percent edge on Zootopia‘s $1.7 million Thursday gross last March. By further comparion, 2014’s The LEGO Movie bowed to $400,000, but that was notably before Thursday night shows had become as prolific as they are today. LEGO Batman remains expected to handily win the weekend. Meanwhile, the second film in that tie was John Wick: Chapter 2 as it also took in $2.2 million last night. The strongly reviewed action sequel came in 65 percent ahead of Jack Reacher: Never Go Back‘s $1.33 million start last October, and easily blew away the original John Wick‘s $870,000 in October 2014. All told, each of the three wide releases remains primed for a lucrative frame ahead. The snowstorm in the northeast could remain something of a factor in business around areas like New York and Boston, but that remains to be seen. Check back here on Saturday morning for weekend projections based on official Friday estimates.
The LEGO Batman Movie is not the best Batman film. That title still goes to The Dark Knight. But it is the best movie about Batman. While The Dark Knight is a heady crime drama set in the Batman universe, the eponymous superhero almost takes a backseat to the Joker’s scheming and the War on Terror politics that permeate the movie. Other Batman films tend to reduce him down to a symbol or a set piece. The LEGO Batman Movie, by virtue of being a silly animated spinoff, isn’t constrained by franchise building or catering to the nihilistic Batman fans who feel that the character only has room for dark and gritty emotions. Chris McKay’s movie is free in a way that Batman films have never been before, and it uses that freedom to explore Batman’s ego, fears, and desires. While the surrounding film can at times go off the rails as it explodes into lunacy and IP integration, overall The LEGO Batman Movie is a constantly delightful experience that embraces the family dynamic other Batman films have pushed away.
After an action-packed opening where Batman (Will Arnett) takes down an army of villains led by Joker (Zach Galifianakis), we see the Caped Crusader return to Wayne Manor on Wayne Island where he lives an incredibly lonely life. Losing his parents at a young age has left Batman in a state of arrested development where he’s scared to have a family again (and also afraid of snake clowns). However, while in his alter ego as Bruce Wayne, he accidentally adopts guileless orphan Richard Grayson (Michael Cera) after being distracted by the beauty of Gotham’s new police commissioner, Barbara Gordon (Rosairo Dawson). Gordon points out that the city can’t rely on a vigilante, and wants Batman to work with the police, much to his chagrin. Still determined to go it mostly alone, Batman brings Grayson into the fold only to discover that he might be making a new family of sorts. For a movie that’s a spinoff and also ostensibly a toy commercial, The LEGO Batman Movie is ridiculously ambitious on just about every level.
Its visuals are outstanding to the point of exhausting. While the action is eye-popping, I was grateful I didn’t see it in 3D because it would have been too much for my eyes to handle. McKay crowds the frame with references, colors, explosions, and cranks everything up to 11. On the one hand, it’s making a point about the action bombast Batman creates in his wake, but on the other hand, it’s a dizzying, dazzling display of what LEGO-style animation can accomplish. But the script also wants to incorporate as much about Batman as possible. It wants to touch on the character’s entire history, including the movies, the comics, the 90s animated series, and the 60s live-action series, and try to wrap all of that up into finding the core of Batman. Sometimes it will add up to a quick joke, (“I have aged phenomenally,” quips Batman) but other times it goes towards something more pointed, like when Gordon notes that Batman violates ethics and laws, so how exactly does that make him a hero?
It’s the kind of criticism that could only be made by people who love Batman because you don’t devote the time to think about a guy who dresses up as a rodent unless you deeply care about him. Unfortunately, The LEGO Batman Movie doesn’t have answers for all of the questions it raises. It brings up Batman’s vigilantism, but ultimately shrugs its shoulders at how he employs it. It brings up how Joker and Batman need each other, but doesn’t have anything deeper regarding these two arch-enemies beyond the Joker and the rest of Batman’s villains being part of his family as much as his allies. However, it does keep its focus on two things: How the dark and serious attitude given to Batman over the decades has morphed into something unintentionally comic, and that this attitude restricts the character’s growth. If Batman is always required to be a dark and gritty vigilante, then it diminishes him into a two-dimensional figure, haunted by grief but prevented by his fanbase from ever dealing with that grief.
While the notion of Batman spending his free time swimming with dolphins, watching Jerry Maguire, and eating lobster thermidor might be silly, isn’t stunting the character’s development for a few decades also silly? The only way to divorce Batman from the notion that being dark and gritty is “cool” is to make him hilarious. It’s the antidote for Batman’s personality woes, and since The LEGO Batman movie is free to just have fun and to laugh at the character, it breaks past a stale shield of po-faced antics. Rather than create a new Batman, the animated film satirizes the character to arrive at an honest point regarding his fears and desires. Just as Batman Begins worked backwards from the point of, “Batman dresses like a bat to strike fear into his enemies; fear must be a part of the character’s origins,” so does The LEGO Batman Movie understand that if Batman pushes people away, that comes from his tragic origins. Both readings of the characters are fair, and both led to more rewarding takes on the character as opposed to the Tim Burton films, which just assume Batman is crazy, the Joel Schumacher films, which just don’t care, and Batman v Superman, which just paints him as a fascist.
By comparison, The LEGO Batman Movie gives Batman, for all of his ridiculous posturing, a very human arc. He’s afraid of losing the people he cares about, so he pushes others away. Fighting crime isn’t a way to avenge his parents’ death; it’s a way to keep others from getting close. While some may take umbrage with this “softening” of Batman, this take is what makes Batman relatable for the first time in a long time outside of the comics. In worshiping Batman, his fans put him in a straightjacket and forced him to be a limited person. Ironically, the insanity of The LEGO Batman Movie frees Batman from that straightjacket. As the film goes on, that insanity starts working against the film, and the madcap energy that worked for The LEGO Movie works against LEGO Batman. Although the universe still feels like its being crafted by an unseen child (for example, Barbara Gordon went to “Harvard for Police”), it also feels like it’s being crafted by unseen Warner Bros. executives asking how they can get more of their IP into the movie.