The Rachel Maddow Show / The MaddowBlog The MaddowBlog, Election 2016, Elections, Entertainment Industry, Pop Culture, Ron Johnson and Wisconsin Former GOP Speaker rocked by criminal charges Ted Cruz adopts a new posture on disaster aid GOP senator complains: 'The Lego Movie' wasn't awesome When it comes to evaluating the financial performance of top movies, it isn’t about what a film grosses at the box office. The true tale is told when production budgets, P&A, talent participations and other costs collide with box office grosses, and ancillary revenues from VOD to DVD and TV. To get close to that mysterious end of the equation, Deadline is repeating our Most Valuable Blockbuster tournament, using data culled by seasoned and trusted sources. We’re counting down from No. 20 and will present the data en masse Monday. THE FILM: A satisfying animated film based on LEGO blocks? This was the other most pleasant and playful franchise launch surprise besides Guardians Of The Galaxy, as minted another franchise to go along with the DC Comics superhero line that will drive its slates for the next five years.
It also gave writer-directors and two films in the Top 10 (22 Jump Street is the other), and will keep them busy in coming years with a Batman LEGO spinoff and sequels. How well did it do financially? Let’s take a look: THE BOX SCORE: Here are the costs and revenues as our experts see them: THE BOTTOM LINE: The film accomplished what so many other toy to movie transfers have tried to achieve. Released February 7, the film posted a whopping $69 million opening weekend, and it kept going. It grossed $257 million domestic and $211 million foreign, with no help from China (storyline too subversive?). That $468 million total pales in comparison to many of the films in the Top 20, but the key here is cost and a lack of participation deals that would have depleted the bottom line. The film’s budget was only $60 million, and you’d have to look at Despicable Me to find a blockbuster animated film that came in at that price point. According to our experts, the talent payouts were healthy for a cast that included Will Arnett, Charlie Day, Jonah Hill, Will Ferrell and Morgan Freeman.
Even when factoring in those bonus payments that added $20 million after cash break, The LEGO Movie left $229 million in net profit to Warner Bros, for a stellar Cash on Cash return of 1.80. And sequels and spinoffs to look forward to. Those films will have to factor in bigger paydays for Lord and Miller and returning voice talent, but that is the price of doing blockbuster business. No. 4 – The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 No. 2 – American Sniper Subscribe to Deadline Breaking News Alerts and keep your inbox happyDirected by Phil Lord & Christopher Miller (21 Jump Street, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs), The LEGO® Movie stars Chris Pratt, Will Ferrell, Elizabeth Banks, Will Arnett, Nick Offerman, Alison Brie and Charlie Day, with Liam Neeson and Morgan Freeman. The original 3D computer animated story follows Emmet, an ordinary, rules-following, perfectly average LEGO minifigure who is mistakenly identified as the most extraordinary person and the key to saving the world.
He is drafted into a fellowship of strangers on an epic quest to stop an evil tyrant, a journey for which Emmet is hopelessly and hilariously underprepared. Chris Pratt (Moneyball) stars as the voice of Emmet. Will Ferrell (The Campaign) stars as the voice of his primary adversary, President Business, an uptight CEO who has a hard time balancing world domination with micro-managing his own life; while Liam Neeson (Taken and Taken 2, Oscar nominee for Schindler’s List) voices the president’s powerful henchman, known as Bad Cop/Good Cop, who will stop at nothing to catch Emmet. The Lego Movie is nominated for a BAFTA 2015 Film Award for Animated FilmAn omnipotent dictator controls the whereabouts and movements of the citizenry. Surveillance cameras constantly monitor the public. Words and songs chosen by the government keep the masses pacified. Yes, I'm describing George Orwell's classic novel Nineteen Eighty-Four — but I'm also describing The LEGO Movie, which hits theaters today.
You probably wouldn't expect to see much in common between a dark, dystopian vision of the future and a children's movie based on a popular toy line. But let me lay out the evidence, and see if you agree (minor spoilers for both Orwell's novel and The LEGO Movie to follow): Nineteen Eighty-Four: "Big Brother seemed to tower up, an invincible fearless protector, standing like a rock against the hordes of Asia…" The LEGO Movie: Lord Business (voiced by Will Ferrell) is the omnipotent leader of the LEGO world, whose absolute hatred of chaos led him to seek power. He ultimately aims to freeze the world and prevent anyone or anything from changing. Nineteen Eighty-Four: "It was a refrain that was often heard in moments of overwhelming emotion. Partly it was a sort of hymn to the wisdom and majesty of Big Brother, but still more it was an act of self-hypnosis, a deliberate drowning of consciousness by means of rhythmic noise." The LEGO Movie: That "drowning of consciousness" exists in the uniformity of each person's actions in LEGO land.
From the shows the citizens watch to the songs they sing to the coffee they consume, the people are pushed to lead bland and monotonous lives. Nineteen Eighty-Four: "People simply disappeared, always during the night. Your name was removed from the registers, every record of everything you had ever done was wiped out, your one-time existence was denied and then forgotten." The LEGO Movie: When people question the leader, they are frozen in place or disappear, never to be seen again. Nineteen Eighty-Four: "There was a whole chain of separate departments dealing with proletarian literature, music, drama and entertainment generally. Here were produced rubbishy newspapers containing almost nothing except sport, crime and astrology, sensational five-cent novelettes, films oozing with sex, and sentimental songs which were composed entirely by mechanical means…" The LEGO Movie: Lord Business and his minions mass-produce entertainment shows, including the nation's biggest television hit, "Where Are My Pants?"
The show — as with other, similar programs — was created to keep the citizens stilted and pacified and succeeds in doing so. Nineteen Eighty-Four: "You did not have friends nowadays, you had comrades; but there were some comrades whose society was pleasanter than that of others." The LEGO Movie: When the main character Emmet (voiced by Chris Pratt) goes missing, his "friends" are interviewed on television about him and none of them know anything important about him. He simply exists as another face in the crowd, rather than a unique person with friends and family members who love him. Nineteen Eighty-Four: "The new tune which was to be the theme song of Hate Week ('The Hate Song,' it was called) had already been composed and was being endlessly plugged on the telescreens." The LEGO Movie: There's no song of hate in the film, but there is a song dedicated to how blandly happy everyone's lives are. As the film begins, "Everything is Awesome" is sung by thousands of LEGO characters, who are instructed to sing along for the next five hours.
Nineteen Eighty-Four: "One did not know what happened inside the Ministry of Love, but it was possible to guess: tortures, drugs, delicate instruments that registered your nervous reactions…" The LEGO Movie: When people — including the main character — question authority, they are brought into a quiet room, interrogated, and even tortured into submission. (Don't worry, parents — it's mostly off-screen.) Nineteen Eighty-Four: "A Party member lives from birth to death under the eye of the Thought Police. Even when he is alone he can never be sure that he is alone." The LEGO Movie: The LEGO characters all live under constant surveillance and can never escape being watched by the police and their overlords. In fact, if they ever go against the routine, they are punished for their rebellious behavior. Nineteen Eighty-Four: "'We [the government] have cut the links between child and parent, and between man and man, and between man and woman.'" The LEGO Movie: In one of the movie's most unexpectedly devastating scenes, a LEGO police officer — who serves as both a good cop and a bad cop — is pushed to cut ties between himself and his family.