Box office, big trouble, big red dogs...
To the shock of some, The Lego Ninjago Movie didn't open so hot at the box office...
Weekend Box Office Report
But really... Was it ever destined to be a big brickbuster on the order of the previous Lego films? The most optimistic prediction I ever made - back in December, no less - stated the final total would be around $115 million domestically. As time went on, I felt a more Storks-esque run (as that was another Warner Animation Group film that opened in the late September frame) was in store for this film... Turns out, that might be the case! A $20 million opening isn't horrible, as the film cost $70 million to make, the same amount that was poured into Storks.
The diagnosis has already been made. Apparently the trailer focusing on Lloyd Garmadon and his evil father was the problem. Apparently the idea of them having a bad relationship made all of the kids in the country collectively say "no!" to the movie. Gee, most of the kids that crowded my theater on Sunday were more than ready for the new Lego movie. If anything, they just saw "More Lego!" Also, with that in mind... I guess kids would hate the original Star Wars trilogy!
No... The problem was obvious. It was based on Lego Ninjago. If you're not in the know about these things, you're probably wondering "What the hell is a Ninjago?" It's a Lego line about ninjas and dragons and fantastical things and such, it was introduced in 2011 alongside a show that was aired - and continues to air - on Cartoon Network. Lego has had these sorts of toy lines and things for a long while, sets that cover many different themes and genres, some of them even came with well thought-out stories! If it isn't a movie-based series of sets (Star Wars, Harry Potter, et al.), then it's something like Lego City or Lego Space. I'd argue the early 2000s equivalent of Ninjago was Bionicle. Right down the sole female hero being the one with the water element.
Lasting a decade and getting a revival of sorts not too long ago, the Bionicle line was big business. I was 10-12 when it was hot on the block, and I actually really liked the designs of the various robotic characters and its sci-fi/fantasy mish-mash worldbuilding. I had a blast building those things, mutating them into different sorts of aberrations, and following the storyline. (It lost me in roughly early 2005, by that time my interests shifted to other things.) A couple of movies were even made, but they all went straight-to-video. For good reason... They probably would've never been major box office smashes, even in a time when computer animation was still this big novelty that the general public just couldn't get enough of.
(Though I guarantee you, if Bionicle: Mask of Light was some bigger-budget theatrical CG film back in the day, I would've begged my family to take me to see that a ton of times in theaters.)
Was Ninjago even ever the size of Bionicle? Well, I can't answer that, I'm not 10 years old! From my view, it seems like it's successful, but not the big deal that Bionicle was. Bionicle really was more than just a Lego toyline. Ninjago, despite being a multimedia series, just doesn't seem as vast, plus Bionicle spawned a lot of different things: Video games, the movies, comics, novels even! There were web animations, web-based games, events, this, that... It was a big deal. I'd argue it was, what, 2003's hottest toy?
If anything, Lego Ninjago did pretty well. I mean, just think about it... The Lego Movie was the first legitimate Lego film, lots of people went. Lego Batman was based on a beloved superhero IP and looked great, lots of people went. Lego Ninjago was based on something not-so-familiar, though its trailers - which I really enjoyed - still promised an irreverent adventure in the vein of its predecessors. It wasn't enough, nor was the presence of Lego bricks and minifigures. Lego Movie and Lego Batman Movie were "events,"Lego Ninjago Movie obviously wasn't of event-status. Just another family flick, Lego or no Lego.
The Lego Movie Sequel is sure to outperform this film by a country mile. If anything, Warner Bros. should be wondering about the future of the Lego standalone films and their release strategy. I think releasing Ninjago so soon after Lego Batman could've been a problem, some audiences could've seen that as overkill. Of course, we know that wasn't always the plan. Lego Batman once occupied the 5/26/2017 slot and got the hell out of dodge once The Last Jedi came crashing in, Ninjago was aiming for 9/23/2016 before Storks ended up taking that space. Happens.
In a way, I think the wait for The Lego Movie Sequel will be a breather. The film isn't out until February 2019, and who knows when Warner will unleash the next spin-off. If they're smart, they'll hold it off and build it up gradually. The Lego Movie series is not the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel Studios and Disney can get away with opening movies like Captain America: Civil War and Doctor Strange and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 mere months apart from each other. The same isn't applying to the Lego movies, so I'd say space them out for now and make more room for other projects, and try to get everyone interested. Ninjago, again, is a series for 6-12 year old boys. Limited demographic, there.
It also happens to be yet another animated film based on an animated TV series that didn't perform like gangbusters. Still, it's going to do a lot better than most films of its ilk.
What will future Lego spin-offs focus on? What is Jorge Gutierrez's Lego movie about? Is The Billion Brick Race ever going to be re-evaluated one day? Will more original standalone Lego movies not based on toylines like Ninjago fare better? Or not? Who knows... But I think Lego Ninjago Movie's opening weekend gross ultimately proved that the iconic bricks aren't enough... I'm curious to see how Warner Bros. goes about this series from here on out.
In other box office news, Leap! fell 55%, it's up to $23 million overall domestically ($20 million here, meaning the film pulled the 4x multiplier, the first wide animated release of the year to do so.) and $104 million worldwide. Despicable Me 3 slowly inches it way towards topping the tickets sales of the first movie starring Gru, the girls, and the gibbering yellow tictacs. It is also inching its way towards outgrossing Finding Dory and Zootopia. The Emoji Movie continues to leg it up, making $84 million here and $185 million worldwide, the film may ultimately fall short of quadrupling its budget. Sony's happy with that, as apparently stated in press materials for something. The Nut Job 2 finally crossed $40 million worldwide, big whoop. Cars 3 slowly deflates, topping $362 million worldwide. Germany gets it in three days. Captain Underpants is closing in on $110 million worldwide.
Summer's been over for a few days now, the movie season itself wrapped a little while back... Let's see where things go from here: Ninjago's possible staying power, My Little Pony, Gnome Alone...
Speaking of Warner Animation Group... We no longer are in the dark.
Warner Animation Unveils Summer 2018 Release
The untitled June 1, 2018 WAG project is in fact a July 27, 2018 release.
It's Teen Titans Go!: The Movie.
Pause for effect.
...
I really don't know.
I've seen maybe... Three episodes of Teen Titans Go!? I'm probably being generous with that number. It was years ago, too, right around the time it launched. It was inoffensive, certainly forgettable... I see that Cartoon Network has had an unhealthy obsession with the show for about a year now, having it air NONSTOP. That's obnoxious, especially when they have quality shows on hand like Steven Universe and We Bare Bears. I totally get the anger towards that, not so much the show itself. Every day I see the knives sharpened, every day I see someone losing their mind over Teen Titans Go! There are a gazillion YouTube videos on why it's worse than cancer, AIDS, getting eaten alive by a shark, Hostel-style torture, etc. The Cartoon Network equivalent of the Cars series, or the Star Wars prequels.
Yes, I don't think the show warrants a theatrical feature-length film.
Yes, I'd rather see Warner Animation Group focus on cool, new things. What's going on with the Bone movie? Oh well, at least Smallfoot arrives next year.
Would I be excited if the movie was instead a continuation of the original 2003 Teen Titans TV series? Hell yes!
It's so out of nowhere, too. How long has it even been in the works? What the heck do they expect out of the picture? Very rarely does an animated movie based on an animated TV show make serious amounts of money. At best, they make a little profit and that's it. The Rugrats Movie, the SpongeBob sequel, and The Simpsons Movie are exceptions, both were smash hits. The former was released at the right time (by 1998, Rugratsmania was in full swing) and the latter is based on one of the longest-running shows ever. The Smurfs I guess could count, though the movie was live-action with animated characters in it, and it's not necessarily a straight adaptation of the 80s Hanna-Barbera cartoon, which itself is an adaptation of the original comics from the 1950s.
What makes this announcement odd is that Cartoon Network supposedly was so scarred by how The Powerpuff Girls Movie performed 15 years ago that they insisted on never doing this kind of thing - unless you count Ninjago - again... Well, here we are.
I also assume that the Adventure Time movie is on ice, plus the show is ending soon.
Maybe it's one big act of trolling, maybe they - like DC's greatest villain - just want to watch the world burn... or maybe they really do think it's a good investment. I can't honestly see it making more than, say, $50 million at the domestic box office. Even if it was a CG film. That would still be, what? 5x the budget?
I don't know, I really don't know. I don't care that much about the show, I find CN's constant airing of it to be a nuisance, I just don't know about a movie. Executives refuse to greenlight a straight-up 2D or hand-drawn film, but will green light a 2D something that's not meant to make more than $50 million domestic... For what? They'd get the same damn success and profit out of a little $30 million 2D film that ISN'T based on a TV show, should they put in any damn effort to market it. Walt Disney Animation Studios had one six years ago, a film starring an iconic character that's been part of the Disney legacy for five decades... The Disney higher-ups intentionally left it for dead. (Don't tell me otherwise, I know this for a fact.)
I'm not mad about Teen Titans Go! existing, I'm more... amused that it's a thing, and also a little bemused. Plus, this will be - believe it or not - the second ever animated movie - that isn't a Lego film - based on a DC property to get a wide theatrical release, not an exclusive Fathom Events run (i.e. The Killing Joke). The first was 1993's Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, which was going to be a straight-to-video release before WB sent it to the big screen with very little fanfare. No, I continue to be angry about how the American feature animation industry continues to treat hand-drawn and 2D animation. Imagine if all the people who make those YouTube rants on Teen Titans Go! channeled all that energy into the 2D problem, among other things that are wrong with the animation industry today.
Moving on...
Clifford Movie Restarted
In development for quite some time, the Clifford the Big Red Dog movie is still a thing...
Up until now, it was going to be a Universal release. Back in roughly 2012, it was actually going to be an Illumination production. Illumination dropped it and other projects such as a Woody Woodpecker movie in favor of new-IP movies - in case the word "original" being in the same sentence as Illumination gives you the heebie-jeebies - like The Secret Life of Pets and Sing. So then it was going to be a live-action/CG hybrid, but it was unknown who would take up the project. It even carried a release date at one point... April 8, 2016, I want to say?
Universal let the dog out, and now Paramount has put the leash on it. Makes me wonder if it'll be housed under their Paramount Animation banner.
I'd say it's a no-brainer for a family film, live-action or all-animated. The treatment is being spearheaded by the writer of Office Christmas Party and the upcoming Father Figures (originally titled Bastards), Justin Malen. Clifford could probably work as a hybrid if they just CG'ed a big red Labrador or hound or whatever. I really can't see them making a hyper-hyperrealistic version of the design we see in the books, the cartoon series, and whatnot. Also... What direction will it even go? Will he not speak? Or will he speak and have other pet friends like in the show and the 2004 animated movie?
Yeah, in case anyone didn't know, there was a 2D animated Clifford movie - which followed the show more so than the books - that was written by one of the writers of Deadpool! It was given a rather small release, though. Who would've thought that one Rhett Reese would later help bring Marvel's merc with the mouth to the big screen?
Anyways... I'd say follow the books, make it feel more like other great kid-and-their-big-companion stories like How To Train Your Dragon, The Iron Giant, and The Rescuers Down Under. Given how long it's taken Hollywood to crack this one, it's certainly not a definite thing, but we shall see...