‘The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part.’ (Photo: Warner Bros)
Early tracking in the US suggests Warner Bros./Animal Logic’s The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part will have a gangbusters opening in North America next month.
The sequel to the 2014 blockbuster is expected to rake in as much as $US55 million over the February 8-10 weekend.
That would easily beat that weekend’s competition, Paramount’s comedy What Men Want, a twist on the Mel Gibson 2000 comedy What Women Want starring Taraji P. Henson; Lionsgate’s actioner Cold Pursuit starring Liam Neeson; and Orion’s horror movie The Prodigy.
In unaided awareness among moviegoers, The Lego Movie 2 is tracking ahead of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Hotel Transylvania 2 and Ralph Breaks the Internet, according to Deadline.com.
The first movie opened on the same weekend in 2014, generating $69 million and finishing with $257.7 million in the US and $469.1 million globally.
Produced at Animal Logic’s studios in Vancouver and Sydney, the animated action-comedy-adventure directed by Mike Mitchell and Trisha Gum will open in Australia on March 21.
Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, who wrote and directed the original, co-wrote the sequel with BoJack Horseman creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg.
The franchise spawned two spinoffs, The Lego Batman Movie and The Lego Ninjago Movie.
Chris Pratt returns as the voice of Master Builder Emmet Brickowski, who has been searching the galaxy for Lucy (Elizabeth Banks) after her abduction by a malevolent, alien force.
Tiffany Haddish voices the shapeshifting Queen Watevra Wa-Nabi along with Will Arnett as Batman, Channing Tatum as Superman, Jonah Hill as Green Lantern, Brooklyn Nine-Nine alum Stephanie Beatriz as Sweet Mayhem, Alison Brie as Unikitty and Nick Offerman as Metal Beard.