RankTitleDomestic Gross (Weekend)Worldwide Gross (Cume)Week #Percentage ChangeBudget1The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part$34,400,000$52,500,0001N/A$100M2What Men Want$19,000,000$19,000,0001N/A$20M3Cold Pursuit$10,800,000$10,800,0001N/AUNK4The Upside$7,220,000$94,700,3665-16.8%$37.5M5Glass$6,422,000$221,476,5804-32.7%$20MNotable Box Office StoriesThe LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part - The Lego Cinematic Universe has always fascinated me. On paper it seems like such a surefire out of the park hit premise. You have a universally beloved toy line that is know for its transmedia branding and you have Warner Bros with it's huge lineup of properties and you think there you have a whole new massive medium for animation. And instead you get the long delayed sequel to the first film and it's a flop. The Lego Movie 2 did secure a #1 spot with $34.4M this weekend but that's more than half the $69M (feel free to snicker) that the first film opened with in 2014. It's also a worse opening than the spin-off film Lego Batman ($53M) though thankfully it did open higher than Lego Ninjago ($20.4M). So what happened to this franchise that just four movies in it already feels on its last legs? Well for one it's worth noting that the LCU has never been that massive of a franchise to begin with. The first film was definitely a surprise hit. Made for $65M it ended up grossing $257M domestic, an incredibly long and lucrative run pushed by fantastic reviews and great word of mouth.The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part (cont.) - The next step, making a Lego Batman movie, felt pretty wise as he was one of the standout characters and it let them play in two different properties, that of Batman and that of Lego. But the results were surprisingly underwhelming as it opened lower than Lego Movie and worse had a more lackluster multiplier, ending up at $175M domestic. But the real stinker was yet to come, the Lego Ninjago movie which you may not realize does not exist. In fact if you own a DVD of it, open it up. You'll just find sand! Ninjago was the worst choice for the franchise to go in, doubling down too much on the Lego brand and not the WB of it all. Ninajgo is a Lego property that's had a good run in TV and VOD where it kind of belongs. It was just way too obscure a title to make mainstream. The results were expectedly terrible, crashing the franchise with a $59M domestic run. So now we get to Lego Movie 2 which doesn't have the same incredibly positive reviews, is 5 years after the release of the first film, following a major flop, and doesn't have the same kind of newness as the first.The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part (cont.) - It's not really shocking to see it open so low but it is alarming for WB and their animation division. To be clear I don't think Lego Movie 2 will ultimately lose money but to go that low so fast is just not a good sign. After Lego Movie this felt like their rock, the thing that would just bleed money. Now it's more like their burden. I think about the fact that one of their next films planned in the franchise is The Lego Brick Race, a racing movie homage to Cannonball Run, and I think yeah maybe just cancel that. To me the wise choice might be to double down on what worked, Batman, and then try to explore other WB properties (Harry Potter, DCEU, umm...Casablanca) in Lego form. Or maybe just say call it quits. It's too bad because I do believe there was potential here but it just all fell apart and not for any one clear reason (except for Ninjago, that was dumb). It's like WB founded this great startup and now five years later it's hemorrhaging money and at death's door. You know there was a great idea in here somewhere, but it's hard to see what it really was all this time.What Men Want - What does it say about the value of the esteemed (?) What Women Want franchise that there was so little complaining about the gender flipped remake? I mean What Women Want is still the #2 highest grossing rom com of all time with $182.8M, but guess rom com fans are either more woke or (more likely) more quiet online cause nothing. Well for the five of you angry boys and girls out there you'll be glad to know What Men Want isn't coming for your precious Mel record any time soon but it still opened decently at #2 with $19M. The film starring Taraji P. Henson in the Gibsonian role as mind reader of the opposite sex got mediocre reviews but scored an A- on Cinemascore so this should be a good counter-programer, since now even February has major box office releases. Ultimately outside of its weird existence this is just a typical February comedy minor hit. Not much more or less. But now the question is where does the WPWCU (What People Want Cinematic Universe) go from here? What Children Want? What Dogs Want? What Aliens Want? The sky's the limit!Cold Pursuit - Can we please just go like one week without some insane controversy about a new release. Just let me talk about the weird meme Liam Neeson in Taken: This Time It's Cold Out movie. Ugh, well perhaps it was the Neeson-ness of it all or just not a well hyped enough film but whatever the cause Cold Pursuit opened this week at #3 to an underwhelming $10.8M. For those who don't know what I'm talking about here it is. Cold Pursuit is a dark comedy based on the Norwegian film In Order of Disappearance and interestingly this is the rare American remake of a foreign film where both films are directed by the same person! Oh what's that, you mean the Neeson thing. Ugh. Look I won't litigate the whole thing (trust me the comments will do that for me) but basically Neeson in a press junket for this film said at one point after a friend of his was raped by a black man he felt the urge to go and kill as many black men as he could find, though he ultimately did not do that and saw the error of that thinking.Cold Pursuit (cont.) - Look, whatever you personally think of that (again, see comments) I think we can all agree laying out something that personal and racially umm...sticky is just a bad bad idea when you are trying to promote your fun black comedy take on your revenge movie persona. Now I don't know if that killed all the hype, though it certainly killed his marketing push short. It could be even if Neeson kept quiet and did the usual circuit this could still underperform. But now this black cloud is associated from it and it's hard to separate. What I can tell you is that this is just a really not great opening. $10M is the lowest Neeson wide release opening since The Next Three Days in 2010. The film got good reviews but scored a B- on Cinemascore and again that Neeson problem means marketing will be limited just out of fear of backlash. Meanwhile publicists everywhere are trying to find out how they can safely sew their clines mouths shut and break their fingers so they can't tweet.The Prodigy - You know there is something interesting about The Prodigy opening at #6 with $6M. The film is bad. Critics hated it, audiences gave it a C+ on Cinemascore but it does have I think a pretty well done trailer and a second trailer that has 37M views. It's got an easy hook, there's no other horror competition out right now. And yet...nothing. At least a film like this should crack $10M and then drop like a rock the next week, but even that core horror audience just stayed away. Now with a budget of just $5M it's impossible for this film to lose money, even after marketing costs. But still why did the audience just avoid this one? Could be a bit of horror fatigue, maybe not a unique enough premise. I'm not sure but it does make me want to focus pretty closely on horror this year. Horror had an amazing 2018 and I'm very curious if that means more stabile growth or more wild volatility this year in the market. Okay and this has been our episode of The Indicator, be sure to listen to our sister show Planet Money and support your local NPR station.The Wandering Earth - While the US box office this weekend was once again very stilted and slow, Chinese cinema goers did not just sit out the Lunar New Year, as a massive planet with rocket powered engines rolled through the cinema like Ng Man-tat rolled over the icy plains of a frozen earth (I saw the movie last night and I'm tired, leave me alone). The Wandering Earth, billed as the first Chinese sci-fi blockbuster (make of that what you will) opened in China to a massive $298M over the five day Lunar New Year weekend. That tops the previous year's massive Lunar New Year opening, Detective Chinatown 2, by almost $50M. The film, based on the short story by Liu Cixin, is about the people Earth being forced to build massive rockets to propel the planet away from a dying sun. The film is a not so subtle climate change analogy and certainly appeals to a very patriotic mindset of putting aside differences for a greater goal. Of course as always the question is will this finally be the Chinese film to become a crossover hit in the US. While it has opened in some limited markets here they were mostly aimed at first / second generation immigrants. There is a bigger release planned but again look at massive hits like Detective Chinatown 2, Wolf Warrior 2, and The Mermaid that have made over $500M in their home country and less than $5M in the US. Perhaps Americans will go crazy for this sci-fi epic but I just still don't see it. Perhaps I'll be wrong but I still feel it will take more than some fancy lights to stun an American audience, we are a bit more discerning. Oh what's that? The Transformers franchise made over $1.5B in the US alone...oh never mind bring on the giant Earth engines!Oscar Movie Round-Up - Wasn't a ton of big new releases or expansions this weekend because, as I've mentioned before, the biggest boost post nominations has already passed. However this weekend did see the release of The Oscar Nominated Short Films 2019, the collective name of the three blocks of programing where you can watch every film in the three Oscar short categories: animation, live action, and documentary. While each one has their own individual ticketing price all three are combined for the box office report. The films (which are released by Magnolia) earned a collective $912K in 265 theaters. That's the best opening ever for the block of programming and it's showing a very good growth in people wanting to see these films before the big show. While again I can't know specifics I have talked to some theater employees and they all say animation is by far the biggest seller with live action in second and close behind documentary. It will be interesting to see if next year the debut can finally crack $1M and I think it can. There clearly is a small but very real hunger for these films. Not to mention they appear on VOD after the ceremony which is likely a nice second life earner.Films Reddit Wants to FollowThis is a segment where we keep a weekly tally of currently showing films that aren't in the Top 5 that fellow redditors want updates on. If you'd like me to add a film to this chart, make a comment in this thread.TitleDomestic Gross (Weekly)Domestic Gross (Cume)Worldwide Gross (Cume)BudgetWeek #A Star is Born (2018)$550,000$208,735,869$418,235,869$36M19Bohemian Rhapsody$2,528,059$210,679,432$844,408,328$52M15Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald$147,543$159,362,631$652,762,631$200M12Holmes and Watson$28,213$30,496,185$39,876,634$42M6Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse$5,905,558$179,821,627$352,555,335$90M9Aquaman$6,504,802$328,547,042$1,120,447,042$200M8Notable Film ClosingsTitleDomestic Gross (Cume)Worldwide Gross (Cume)BudgetInstant Family$67,363,237$99,463,237$48MMary Queen of Scots$16,468,499$37,868,499$25MAs always r/boxoffice is a great place to share links and other conversations about box office news.Also you can see the archive of all Box Office Week posts at r/moviesboxoffice (which have recently been updated).My Letterboxd: http://bit.ly/2rSmMyn via /r/movies http://bit.ly/2GCDYAd
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