12 Years Ago, An Animated Movie Turned A Toy Line Into A Major Box Office Hit

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Twelve years ago, a film came out that many fans considered a simple attempt to profit from toy sales. Surprisingly, it turned out to be a critically acclaimed animated film and launched a successful new series. It even received an unexpected Oscar nomination.

Most movies based on toys are simply made to boost toy sales. But when Phil Lord and Christopher Miller took on the challenge of making a LEGO movie, they aimed higher. They wanted to create a truly great film, and whether it sold LEGOs wasn’t their main concern.

The LEGO Movie Remains Hollywood’s Best Toy Movie

While some toy-based movies have much larger budgets – like the billion-dollar Transformers series – when it comes to quality, The LEGO Movie stands out. It’s the best because it understands what makes LEGOs fun and builds a genuinely heartwarming story around it.

It’s easy to imagine The LEGO Movie being just another marketing ploy – a quick way to put LEGO characters on screen and sell more toys to kids who were brought to the theater by their parents. Similar movies, like those based on Care Bears or Trolls, have done just that. But The LEGO Movie aimed for something more ambitious.

The LEGO Movie successfully adapted the popular LEGO toys for the big screen, but it centered the story around two new characters, Emmet and Wyldstyle. Instead of simplifying the plot for children, the filmmakers, Miller and Lord, created a film that was both appealing to those with fond memories of LEGO and surprisingly insightful about modern life.

The movie centered around the idea of sharing, illustrated by a clever twist: the villain, Lord Business, symbolized an overprotective father who hoarded LEGOs, while the hero, Emmet, represented the importance of letting kids actually play with toys instead of just collecting them.

While Barbie may have been more commercially successful, The LEGO Movie arguably paved the way for toy-based films by demonstrating that toys could be used to tell meaningful stories. Ultimately, The LEGO Movie remains the strongest animated film based on a toy line, and Barbie excels as the best live-action movie of its kind.

The LEGO Movie Helped Launch A Massive Franchise

The unexpected success of The LEGO Movie – it earned $470.7 million at the box office despite costing only $60 million to make, and critics loved it with a 96% rating on Rotten Tomatoes – paved the way for follow-up films and expanded its presence on streaming platforms.

A direct sequel, The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part, followed the original. Though not as strong as the first movie, it still offered a clever and thoughtful story with well-developed characters. The LEGO Batman Movie was a fantastic spin-off, creating a uniquely enjoyable superhero animated film.

Then came The LEGO Ninjago Movie, inspired by the hit TV show. It was made possible by the success of the original The LEGO Movie. However, The LEGO Ninjago Movie didn’t receive very good reviews, and it also earned less money at the box office.

Beyond the movie sequels, the LEGO brand expanded with the Unikitty! TV series, which ran for three seasons and 104 episodes on Cartoon Network. Several short animated videos were also created, like Emmet’s Holiday Party and Cooking With Alfred.

Beyond the LEGO movie series itself, its success helped pave the way for other animated movies based on popular brands. Over the years, we’ve seen streaming films featuring characters from Scooby-Doo, DC Comics, Marvel, Star Wars, Jurassic Park, and many others.

Several video games were made based on The LEGO Movie and its related stories. These games were part of the broader LEGO video game series, which also includes games based on Marvel characters. Additionally, content from The LEGO Movie was available as expansion packs for LEGO Dimensions, but support for that game ended in 2017.

The Future Of The LEGO Movie Franchise

The future of the LEGO Movie series has been uncertain since the last two films didn’t perform well in theaters. This also led to the cancellation of the DC Superfriends LEGO sets when Warner Bros. lost the LEGO license after The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part only earned $199.6 million at the box office.

Unfortunately, we won’t be seeing any new LEGO sets featuring Emmet, WyldStyle, Unikitty, MetalBeard, or the other characters from The LEGO Movie. Warner Bros. owns those original characters, and since Universal now owns the LEGO brand, they aren’t able to use them. This effectively means the end of The LEGO Movie series of LEGO sets.

Because Warner Bros. owns the rights to DC characters like LEGO Batman, Universal Pictures is limited in what LEGO characters it can use in its films. Following its acquisition of LEGO, Universal has only produced one movie—Piece by Piece, a biopic about Pharrell Williams told using LEGOs.

Universal Pictures is planning three new LEGO movies, with Jake Kasdan, Patty Jenkins, and Joe Cornish all set to direct. Surprisingly, these films will be live-action, which many find odd considering the source material is LEGOs.

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2026-02-08 00:39