Price: low to highPrice: high to low View 100 per page Bubble Club Bubble Bundle Adora Baby Diaper Bag with Accessories Comfy Critters Dexter the Dog Adora Baby Doll Bed Brain Box Boat Experiment Electronic Brain Box Car and Boat Experiments Barbie Fashionistas Doll Assorted Barbie Fashionistas Doll with Fashion Accessories Assorted Felt Creations Dancing Ballerina Finding Dory Blind Bag Felt Creations Fire Engine Disney Frozen Classic Elsa Doll Disney Frozen Fashion Change Dolls Assorted View 100 per pageUS moviegoers could choose violence, sex or family-friendly fare this weekend with three diverse new offerings that all drew healthy numbers at the North American box office. The Lego Batman Movie - which isn't due for release in New Zealand until April - took the top spot with US$55.6 million, dominating Fifty Shades Darker, which attracted US$46.8 million, according to studio estimates. The spinoff of 2014's Lego Movie benefited from good reviews and a lack of competition in the family space, which is expected to help it maintain its pace going into the holiday weekend, when kids are out of school.
A whopping 48 per cent of opening weekend audiences was under 25. It also bodes well for Warner Bros' next Lego spinoff, The Lego Ninjago Movie, set for September. US audiences were slightly less curious to catch up with the exploits of Christian Grey and Ana Steele the second time around. The sequel didn't compare to Fifty Shades of Grey's $85.2 million debut in 2015. Nick Carpou, Universal Pictures' president of domestic theatrical distribution, said the first movie debuted in a "perfect storm". The film adaptation of the best-selling book had gained immense interest and Valentine's Day fell on a Saturday in 2015, making the movie a date-night destination. This year, the holiday lands on a Tuesday. "This is a great start," Carpou said, noting that the CinemaScore from audiences is stronger for the sequel. "The story will be told through the first part of this week." Fifty Shades Darker fared much better abroad, bringing in US$100.1 million and topping international charts. The other R-rated sequel in theaters this weekend, John Wick: Chapter 2 took third place.
With US$30 million, it more than doubled the debut of the original. The Keanu Reeves hit man flick became a sleeper hit on the small screen, and that goodwill helped bolster interest in the follow-up, which is also getting strong reviews. "People really love its unapologetic violence," said Paul Dergarabedian, a senior media analyst for box office tracker comScore. Rounding out the top five were holdovers Split, the M Night Shyamalan psychological thriller that added $9.3 million, for a total of US$112.3 million in earnings, and Oscar contender Hidden Figures with US$8 million, boosting its total to US$131.5 million. Check out our new Grants and Funding page to find details on grant opportunities and tips for writing your own grant requests. You can download our guide or find specific examples for your LEGO education classroom solution. Coming to a city near you Visit us at an event and experience the new LEGO Education WeDo 2.0, participate in one of our hands-on workshops, or just stop by to tell us how you create engaging learning experiences in your classroom.
Professional training and development Get the most out of your LEGO Education resources with LEGO Education Academy training resources. Either bring a certified trainer to your school for a custom face-to-face professional development experience, or opt for one of our e-learning courses. It was an empire on the verge of crumbling. Danish toy giant Lego was in serious danger of being relegated to toy heaven forever. But according to trends forecaster and business analyst Michael McQueen, Lego's near-death experience was actually the best thing that ever happened to it. Mr McQueen, who has helped some of the world's most successful brands navigate change, said if Lego hadn't gone back to basics and rebuilt itself brick by brick a decade ago, it would have failed forever. The author of Momentum: How to Build it, Keep it, or Get it Backsaid there were two big factors which contributed to Lego's near demise - the rise and competition of video games and over innovating. In 2001 the grandson of Lego's founder and the company's then president Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen admitted the company was struggling so embarked on what he called a pursuit of innovation.
But just two years later and despite a 17 per cent rise in sales "the Lego empire began to crack". "Retailers such as Target and Walmart were choking on a backlog of unsold Lego sets from Christmas 2002," Mr McQueen said. He said while the innovation was great, the problem was only six per cent of those ideas were actually making any money. "Lego saw this threat and started to compete in the video game market," he said but revealed this had come at a massive cost. "The company began to over innovate, it began to over produce and this affected its core business." By 2004, Jorgen Knudstorp was named as CEO and quickly realised what had to be done - a back to basics prune and a return to its core products. "Knudstorp quickly identified that the Lego group had over-innovated, spread itself far too thin and had launched so many new initiatives that the company had lost a 'crisp sense of identity'," Mr McQueen said. "It was a case of too many products and not enough profit." He said another issue that needed addressing was the sheer amount of manufacturing costs which had skyrocket as Lego increased its colours from six to 50 plus along with the number of components.
The result of the new shift in back to basics was soon obvious. "By the end of 2005, Lego rebounded from a $292 million loss the previous year to a pre-tax profit of $117 million," Mr McQueen said. "That same year, the company would post sales of $1.2 billion but, more importantly, profitability would more than triple." Mr McQueen said how Lego had saved itself was not only remarkable but also served as a lesson for other companies who had lost their mojo. Just two years ago, it had overtaken Mattel to become the world's biggest toymaker and is now the most popular toy of all time. Just this week Lego revealed its sales have continued to grow in the first half of 2016, thanks to strong demand in Europe and Asia. The privately-held company recorded a net profit of $689 million and revenue increased by 10 per cent with sales growth driven by lines like Lego City and Lego Ninjago, the Associated Press reported. "Every second, seven Lego sets are sold somewhere on the planet, with Lego's extensive network of factories churning out a staggering 22 billion plastic bricks each year - roughly 500 bricks per second," he said.