Box office: Lego Movie 2 building toward top spot with $35 million, a disappointing debut for the animated sequel

The good citizens of Bricksburg will conquer the box office this weekend thanks to the release of The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part from Warner Bros. Animation. The highly-anticipated sequel is set to take in an estimated $35 million (some estimates place it even lower), but this total is quite shy of initial expectations, which placed the animated sequel's debut haul between $50 million - $55 million. 

Compared to the first movie's first weekend total of over $69 million, $32 million is small potatoes for the follow-up, which was written by Into the Spider-Verse's Phil Lord and Chris Miller and directed by Mike Mitchell (Sky High). By the end of its theatrical run, The LEGO Movie brought in more than $257 million domestically and more than $211 million from foreign markets. Similarly, The LEGO Batman Movie did more than $53 million during its theatrical debut in February of 2017. However, The LEGO Movie 2 is still faring better than The LEGO Ninjago Movie, which only managed $20 million during its first weekend in theaters.

Set after the Diplo invasion (LEGO owns Diplo, btw) at the end of the first film, The Second Part finds Bricksburg transformed into a dystopian, Mad Max-inspired wasteland, whose citizens are now grizzled and tough. Emmett Brickowski (voiced by Chris Pratt) seems to be the only person unaffected by the change of landscape—he's still as optimistic as he ever was.

When his girlfriend and fellow Master Builder, Lucy/Wildstyle (Elizabeth Banks), is kidnapped by General Sweet Mayhem (Stephanie Beatriz), Emmett sets off on an adventure across the LEGO cosmos to save her. Along for the ride are: Batman (Will Arnett), Benny (Charlie Day), Princess Unikitty (Alison Brie), MetalBeard (Nick Offerman), Superman (Channing Tatum), Green Lantern (Jonah Hill), Queen Watevra Wa-Nabi (Tiffany Haddish), and more. 

Paramount's What Men Want (itself a remake of 2000's What Women Want with Mel Gibson) will nab the No. 2 spot with $19 million from 2,912 theaters. Directed by Adam Shankman (Rock of Ages), the comedy stars Taraji P. Henson (Ralph Breaks the Internet) as a sports agent who gains the ability to read mens' thoughts. Under-appreciated at work because she's a woman, she begins to use this power to improve her life for the better and use guys' deepest sentiments against them. 

Now in its fourth weekend at the box office, M. Night Shyamalan's Glass will nab the fifth spot with $6 million. The third and fourth spots will go to Cold Pursuit and The Upside respectively. 

Orion Pictures

Also at the box office this weekend is the evil kid horror flick, The Prodigy, from Orion Pictures, which is on track to make about $6 million from 2,530 theaters. With a production budget of just $6 million, the film (directed by Nicholas McCarthy) doesn't need to worry about in the way of recouping its losses. Taylor Schilling (Orange Is the New Black) stars as a mother dealing with her son (It: Chapter One's Jackson Robert Scott), who begins to act strange, eventually revealing something much more sinister about his odd behavior. 

(via Variety, The Hollywood Reporter & Box Office Mojo)