Bringing one of the world's most popular toys to the big screen, Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow's The LEGO Movie opens to $69.1 million in North America, one of the highest openings ever for an original animated movie.
Thanks to a strong brand and broad appeal, Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow's The LEGO Movie stacked up one of the highest openings ever for an original animated movie, opening to $69.1 million in North America and taking the top spot at the domestic box office.
The current record-holder for a non-sequel film is The Simpsons Movie with $74 million, followed by Up ($68.1 million), Dr. Seuss' The Lorax ($70.2 million) and The Incredibles ($70.5 million). The debut also marks the second largest opening of all time for the month of February, just behind Mel Gibson's 2004 feature, The Passion of the Christ ($83.8 million). Overseas, the film opened to $18.1 million from 34 markets for a worldwide total of $87.2 million.
Made in association with the Denmark’s Lego Systems A/S, the tween-skewed LEGO Movie features the voices of Chris Pratt, Will Ferrell, Elizabeth Banks, Will Arnett, Liam Neeson and Morgan Freeman. It follows an ordinary minifigure named Emmet who is mistaken for the hero who can save the LEGO universe. Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow made the 3D animated feature with Lin Pictures and Vertigo Entertainment.
George Clooney's latest directing effort, The Monuments Men, came in second place for its debut, grossing $22.7 million at the domestic box office. From Sony and 20th Century Fox, the $70 million World War II comedy-drama stars Clooney opposite Matt Damon, Bill Murray, John Goodman, Jean Dujardin, Bob Balaban, HughBonneville and Cate Blanchett.
The weekend's third new offering, Vampire Academy, tanked at the box office, earning only $4.1 million and coming in seventh place. The latest YA film adaptation, Vampire Academy was financed by IM Global and Reliance, and released in the U.S. by The Weinstein Co.
Among holdovers, Universal's Ride Along came in third place in its fourth weekend, grossing $9.4 million and passing the $100 million mark with a total of $105.2 million.
Disney's animated blockbuster hit Frozen stayed high up on the chart, coming in fourth place domestically with $6.9 million. Frozen's North America total is now $368.8 million, passing Despicable Me 2 ($368.1 million).
Worldwide, Frozen continues its march toward $1 billion. The animated sensation added $24 million overseas, over half of which came from a $13.7 million debut in China, where the film is already Disney Animation's biggest movie ever. Frozen has now earned more than $913 million worldwide, and is on track to earn $1 billion before it reaches Japan next month.
Focus Features comedy That Awkward Moment came in fifth place, taking in $5.5 million over its sophomore weekend for a total of $16.8 million.
Peter Berg’s Afghanistan war drama Lone Survivor -- now in its sixth week out -- made $5.3 million for a sixth place finish and a total of $112.6 million.
Coming in eighth place, The Nut Job brought in $3.8 million for Open Road Films and partners ToonBox, Redrover and Gulfstream Pictures. To date, the animated family feature has brought in $55.1 million.
Paramount's Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit came in ninth place with $3.6 million, putting the film's domestic total at $44.5 million.
Rounding out the list at number 10, Jason Reitman's Labor Day brought in $3.2 million for Paramount, pushing the film’s total to $10.2 million. Starring KateWinslet, Josh Brolin, Gattlin Griffith and Tobey Maguire, Labor Day cost $18 million to make.
Ahead of its U.S. debut, MGM and Sony's RoboCop reboot grossed $20.2 million from 47 markets ahead of its North American debut for an early foreign total of $28.7 million.
Mr. Peabody & Sherman opened in first place in the U.K. with $6.6 million. The DreamWorks Animation movie reaches the U.S. on March 7th.
Box office numbers were obtained on boxofficemojo.com.
Formerly Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network, Jennifer Wolfe has worked in the Media & Entertainment industry as a writer and PR professional since 2003.
