The Lego Movie 3

The Lego Movie 3 is a 2024 American computer-animated comedy film directed and written by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, who co-wrote the script alongisde John August. Produced by Warner Animation Group and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures is the sequel of The Lego Movie (2014) and The Lego Movie 2 (2017), and the seventh film in the LEGO Extended Universe. Voice cast members Chris Pratt, Elizabeth Banks, Will Arnett, Alison Brie, Nick Offerman and Charley Day reprise their roles from the previous films, with Will Ferrel and Channing Tatum in in minor roles. In the film, Emmet (Pratt), Wyldstyle (Banks) and their friends team up to save the world from the catastrophic threat of an alien army, which is out to destroy the planet in order to colonize it.

Lord and Miller had discussed plans for a sequel by January 2017 and the ideas for the film began in 2018. The film was announced in July 2018 with an initial release date of 2020. Lord and Miller wanted to differentiate the film from their previous installments, seeking to make a film inspired by the typical science fiction of the 1980s. However, the intense schedule and tight schedule of the filmmakers led to significant delays to allow the team more time to work on writing, pre-production, and developing new animation techniques. August came on board to contribute to the script in February 2020, with the further casting revealed later that year. Production began in early 2021 in Vancouver, Canada and concluded at the beginning of May 2023. Development on The Lego Movie 3 lasted for six year, on an approximate $100 million budget,

The Lego Movie 3 premiered in Los Angeles, California on January 27, 2024, and was released in the United States on February 2, 2024 in Dolby Cinema, RealD 3D, IMAX and IMAX 3D. The film received positive reviews for its tone, animation, voice acting, screenplay and soundtrack. The film has grossed over $879.3 million worldwide, becoming the eigth-highest-grossing film of 2024 following a strong debut that set new box office records. The film also received numerous accolades, including nominations for at the 97th Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature and others.

Plot
A year has passed since the Battle of Metropolis, and following the invasion led by the now defeated Darkside, Emmet, Wyldstyle, and their friends return to their normal lives. Now the group and their world are perplexed when a massive alien mothership enters Earth's orbit and deploys multiple flying saucers, destroying everything in its path. Amidst the chaos, the group splits up, with Wyldstyle and others being abducted by the hideous aliens, running against time to escape and destroy the ship from inside. On land, Emmet and Benny team up with two super-intelligent girls, Jane and Michael, with no choice but to fight the invaders face-to-face. All of them must now embark on a survival journey through different strange and unknown situations to stop the evil creatures, survive and find themselves again in the process. This may be their toughest adventure yet.

Cast

 * Chris Pratt as Emmet Brickowsky
 * Will Arnett as Bruce Wayne/Batman
 * Tiffany Haddish as Michael
 * Stephanie Beatriz as Jane
 * Charlie Day as Benny
 * Alison Brie as Unikitty
 * Nick Offerman as MetalBeard
 * Tenoch Huerta as Norwegian
 * Will Ferrell as Lord Business
 * Channing Tatum as Superman
 * Cobie Smulders as Wonder Woman
 * Jonah Hill as Green Lantern

Development
Before the release of The Lego Movie 2, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller expressed interest in returning to direct and write a third film. By then they had discussed what they would want in a possible third film. On August 8, 2018 Dan Lin revealed that a third film of the series is in development but it does not yet have a release date For 2019, both prepared treatments, however, they decided to change the narrative to be a science fiction adventure that they began to develop in the following months and July 12, the film was officially announced. At that time the production was slow, due to the tight schedule of the directors. They cited a lack of time to direct and write as a reason the film's development was convoluted in the early stages.

On January 14, 2020, Warner Bros. Pictures officially a release date of February 2, 2024. Dan Lin and Roy Lee were announced as producers a month later, with Lord and Miller serving as executive producers. By the end of June, Lord and Miller had finished a first "volume" of the script they had been working on since 2018, when they got into an argument with August about its plot, who found it interesting and striking. Later that month it was confirmed that Chris Pratt and Elizabeth Banks would be returning, reprising their lead roles from the previous films. As of July 28, Will Arnett was in final talks to play his Batman character. Over the next several weeks, Nick Offerman and Charlie Day confirmed her return and Alison Brie confirmed that she would play Unikitty in a minor role. In June 2021, it was announced that Tiffany Haddish and Stephanie Beatriz had joined the cast as two undisclosed characters, who later revealed themselves to be two girls specializing in astronomy and supernatural things. Australian animation studio Animal Logic, which contributed to the previous films, announced their cooperation on the film as part of an earlier deal. In August 2021, Lord and Miller said that they would be "bringing some eye-catching elements to the table to make the film a completely different experience from its predecessors" and described themselves as "raptured" by the film's concept. In September, Phil expanded by saying that the film would connect with Lego Dimensions (2022) but it would have a story on a much smaller scale, being able to make the characters, the story and the tone, open interpretations of the production team.

Writing
In May 2020, it was reported that John August would be working alongside Lord and Miller on the script. When they agreed, they discussed a basic set of ideas they already had for the film, and within the first ten days they began working on the new script and coming up with the basic story, inspired by Star Wars (1977). Miller said the story was influenced by the idea of ​​the uncertainty of extraterrestrial life and what it would be like to wake up and discover unknown beings potentially dangerous to everyone with no ability to communicate with them. In addition, the film was described as a typical 1970s and 1980s sci-fi adventure. It began with a rough two-page treatment containing basic beats and rough character sketches, showing the plot as a monster spectacle while They continued to create a story with recognizable characters.

In the initial treatment, they had included elements of the story that they considered for the previous films in the series or that they considered excessive for a single film. The script took a year to develop and although it ended up being the same as the final film, some lines were changed, revised and improved during filming and post-production, including more details about the integration of the villains in the universe; for this they were based on some plot points shown in movies like Independence Day (1996) and Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). By October 2020, the script was still being written, and August expressed his excitement to do something drastically different from the previous films, feeling that the third act of the film was proving to be more challenging in terms of writing, as many of the arcs of the story converged and needed to be resolved. In November 2020 it was announced that the script had been being written on and off for over 6 months up to that point and that final work would begin that week. Lord and Miller also called the film "their version of Aliens", calling the humorous construction of the previous films and the balance between seriousness and Aliens ' "funny, tongue-in-cheek moments" as a similar approach for The Lego Movie 3.

Many central parts of the film were rewritten multiple times. In the original script, the characters of Sweet and Michael were originally written as acquaintances, however they were changed in later drafts for story consistency and to act as newly added lead characters. The final battle went through many rewrites, Lord and Miller initially describing it as a battle in space inspired by Return of the Jedi (1983), before being changed to a "more earthy, explosive and monstrous" confrontation for the viewer. In one treatment, entire sequences of the aliens terrorizing different groups of characters were written, but were later cut due to presumed suspicion and because they were deemed "unnecessary to show the spectacle of the film", an arc inspired by the film had also been originally written. into a "serialized Godzilla"-like creature, however, it was quickly scrapped early in development.

Production
In February 2021, production was scheduled to begin that same year at the Animal Logic studio in Vancouver, Canada and by May it entered the process after various screenings and suggestions, and a three-month evaluation. Animation and production took a year and a half, with around 48 animators involved in the film. Rendering took 26 hours, and it took three weeks of animation to create ten seconds of additional footage. They called the final battle the most difficult sequence to do, with particles, colors and multiple moving objects in each microshot. The design reflected scenes from Lego Batman (2017), and was emphasized by free form techniques. Around 300 different Headquarters designs were developed. The production of the film took advantage of Animal Logic's latest update to its trace renderer, Glimpse, to improve on-screen detail and depth-of-field

For the creatures in the film, their designs were required to give off an evil presence and evoke a sense of the grotesque, stating "These characters can't look like another kind of super-intelligent alien in big spaceships. Most of Hollywood has that covered. These have to be different, weird and creepy, but not terrifying." Lord and Miller were inspired by the design of The Thing (1982) for the creatures, the sketches made it seem that emotions were superior, even though the rules were broken within such limits. The directors instructed the designers to look at the designs of various creatures from movies of yesteryear was considered important that the creatures be conveyed as dangerous entities to the characters and not as "especially sentient beings". The overall design of The Lego Movie 3 drew heavily on influences from the neon aesthetic, prominent in the 1950s, as well as LED lighting, converting actual light from a geometry, and styling it with "sprite-like and golden" modifications. Using scaling progressions they measured the size of the world build of the main characters.

Post-production
In November 2023, Clare Knight was revealed to be serving as the editor, after previously working on the franchise during post-production on Lego Dimensions (2022). In June of that year, Channing Tatum, Cobie Smulders and Jonah Hill revealed that they would play Superman, Wonder Woman, and Green Lantern, respectively. Voice recording began in late 2022 and ended in mid-2023, with some scenes re-recorded for re-takes after Comic-Con.

Music

 * Main article: The Lego Movie 3 (soundtrack)

It was originally reported that The Lego Movie 2 composer Mark Mothersbaugh would be composing the music for the third movie. However, in December 2021, he was no longer involved. Lorne Balfe, who had previously worked on the franchise with Lego Batman, was reported to have written initial music for the film. Dan Lin confirmed his involvement in the project in August 2022. Music for the film officially began on October 29, 2023, at the Newman Scoring Stage in 20th Century. The soundtrack album was released on February 2, 2024 by WaterTower Music. An expanded score album was released on February 20, featuring 10 more tracks from the original score. A soundtrack album for the film was also released, featuring various artists, and musical icons of the 1980s, including Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" and the remix version of "I Think We're Alone Now" by Tiffany Darwish, used in the teaser trailer. In November 2023, it was reported that the film would feature Likke Li's song "I Follow Rivers" over the film's end credits.

Marketing
Lord and Miller and the cast and directors promoted the film at the 2023 San Diego Comic-Con along with the debut of the teaser trailer on July 22, 2023. The teaser featured a remastered version of singer Tiffany Darwish's cover of "I Think We're Alone Now" from 1987. Both Leah Simpson and Giovana Gelhoren of People called the footage "powerful and engaging", while it commemorated 1980s pop culture. Writing for IndieWire, Christian Zilko also felt that the trailer commemorated 1980s style and opined that this presented a challenge for the film, with the way of presenting itself to please the masses. Carson Burton and J. Kim Murphy of Variety felt that the most striking thing about the teaser was its neon visual tone, noting the presence of the film's villains at the end of the tease. The teaser tráiler received 177 million views in its first 24 hours of release, the largest for the franchise film and the second-largest ever for an animated film. The construction sets of the film were revealed on the same day and went on sale in November 2023.

The film was added in a sizzling reel that was shown before screenings during National Cinema Day in September 2023, which highlighted upcoming films from various studios. Pratt, Banks, Arnett, and Haddish promoted the film at New York Comic-Con 2023 with exclusive footage, which Aaron Couch of The Hollywood Reporter described as a "thrilling sequence." An official trailer was released on November 12, 2023. EJ Panaligan of Variety and Narayan Liu of Comic Book Resources called it an "exciting" trailer that provided a better look at the film, focusing much more on the action, with Liu adding that considerable "more intense story" than the first trailer portrayed. Devan Coggan of Entertainment Weekly called the trailer "an even better look at what the movie will ultimately be", with "an impressive look at the fearsome new villains". Gizmodo 's Linda Codega found everything in the trailer from "the music, the energy, [and] the intensity" to be "incredible" and exclaimed that the film seemed to "balance[ing] action maneuvers, humor, some seriousness, and the kind of silliness that [one] would expect from a Lego movie".

In August 2023, Lego opened deals with Chevrolet, McDonald's, Discover Card, and Turkish Airlines for a major advertising campaign. A Turkish Airlines promotional video debuted online on December 16, 2023; Versions of 30 and 15 seconds were also created. According to industry reports, the studio's marketing team worked closely with the head of marketing to use the Internet to their advantage and find innovative ways to market the film to the public. This added unique trailers, unconventional billboards, promotional tie-ins with Super Bowl 50 and Viacom, and an extensive social media presence. Emma Gray Ellis at Wired.com described the campaign as "crazy and relentless". In mid-December 2023 ComScore's PreAct noted that The Lego Movie 3 took over the social media conversation after releasing character posters and debuting a music video for Grandson's "Dirty," featuring new footage from the film. In the coming weeks, the movie would continue to dominate other blockbuster movies like Wish and Ghostbusters 4, as well as other highly anticipated titles like Warner Bros.' Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. The Lego Movie 3 was also the most talked about title on social media. during the New Year's weekend (December 29-31) with 281,000 conversations, due to a promotional sub-campaign based on the holiday.

Theatrical
The Lego Movie 3's world premiere was held on January 27, 2024, at rhe Regency Village Theater in Los Angeles, California. The film was theatrically released in the United States on February 2, 2024, with distribution by Warner Bros. Pictures. The film was released in in Dolby Cinema, RealD 3D, IMAX and IMAX 3D formats. Select showings also had support for a dynamic high frame rate of up to 48 frames per second. It is also one of the widest releases ever for a Warner animated film, opening on more than 12,000 screens in the United States and Canada and 40,000 internationally. The film was subjected to three delays, as the crew took more time on the writing, pre-production and animation procces Initially in late-2017, the film was scheduled for release in Spring 2019. When it was officially announced in mid-2018, The Lego Movie 3 was originally meant to release in February 2020, which was subsequently delayed to December 16, 2022 in June 2020 and then to February 2, 2024 in December 2021, due to COVID-19 pandemic and the animation process.

Home media
Warner Bros. Home Entertainment released The Lego Movie 3 for digital download on April 22, 2014, and on Blu-ray, 4K Ultra-HD Blu-Ray, Blu-Ray 3D, and DVD on May 19. Physical copies contain behind-the-scenes featurettes, audio commentary, deleted scenes, and containing roughly thirteen minutes of footage absent from the theatrical version. As of August 20, 2025, it has made $61.4 million in DVD sales and $41.5 million in Blu-ray sales according to The Numbers.

Box office
The Lego Movie 3 earned $398.4 million in the United States and Canada and $481.6 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $879.1 million against a production budget of $100 million. It became the eight-highest-grossing film of 2024 and the 20th-highest-grossing animated film of all time. It recorded a worldwide opening of $252.2 million from 69 countries and IMAX global debut of $27.4 million, both set new animated records for february. On March 15, 2024, it earned $800 million in ticket sales, becoming the second-highest-grossing film in the franchise, behind Lego Dimensions. Deadline Hollywood calculated the film's net profit as $220.8 million, accounting for production budgets, marketing, talent participations, and other costs; box office grosses and home media revenues placed it sixth on their list of 2024's "Most Valuable Blockbusters".

By January 31, prior to the film's domestic release, Boxoffice Pro projected an opening weekend in the United States and Canada of $96–131 million, and with a total final domestic gross of $285–376 million. By the week of its release, opening weekend projections had reached over $140 million. The film earned $71.5 million on its opening day and included $28.3 million from Thursday previews, both records for an animated film, with $21.1 million coming from IMAX theaters. It debuted with $142.1 million over the weekend, the second-biggest debut for the franchise and the second-best for February. However, saw a steep decline from Friday to Saturday, grossing $28.8 million (a 59.4% drop). The film marked an unusually large debut primarily among the 15-22 age group, which accounted for 52% of the opening weekend, with the 25+ age group accounting for 27%. The film made $42.9 million in its second weekend, a drop of 69%, remaining atop the box office. In the third weekend it grossed $29.1 million for an drop of 31%, and $40.2 million through the four-day President Day weekend. The film surpassed $350 million on March 12 and remained in the top ten through its ninth weekend.

Outside the US and Canada, the film grossed $110.2 million in 73 countries in its first week of release. Opening the film in 15 countries on January 31, 2024, it earned $13.9 million, followed by $24.8 million the next day. As of Sunday, February 4, it delivered a five-day opening from 71 countries on 17,630 screens. The largest openings for the film by the end of the week were in United Kingdom ($39.4 million), France ($25,1 million), Australia ($21.5 million) and Germany ($15.4 million). In the second weekend it grossed $38.6 million for a drop of 65%. In the third weekend it grossed $24.3 million, an drop of 37% from the previous weekend. The film had a late release in China on February 21 and had an opening weekend of $68 million, the franchise's second-biggest opening. In the fourth weekend it grossed $21.6 million for a drop of 5%, while becoming the highest-grossing film of the year outside the US and Canada. Its largest markets were China ($132.3 million), the United Kingdom ($81.4 million), France ($56.1 million) Australia ($39.8 million), Germany ($23.7 million), Spain ($16.0 million) and Japan ($10.3 million).

Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 84% based on 347 reviews, with an average rating of 8.5/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "While not as dazzling as its predecessors, The Lego Movie 3 fits right into the franchise, with an emotional story, heart and humor to spare." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average of 79 out of 100, based on 47 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale, while PostTrak reported filmgoers gave it a 89% overall positive score.

Positive reviews focused on the action featured and retro aesthetics. Chicago-Sun Times critic Richard Roeper called the film's formulation "a dazzling spectacle, and an action scene not found in most animated films." Variety critic Owen Gleiberman praised the film as a "dizzyingly spectacular third part" with "miraculously sustained" combat sequences, "scenes that will make your eyes pop, your head spin and your soul race." On the other hand, Gleiberman felt that the story is "basic" with a "series of useful clichés", albeit with dimensionality to the characters and their new story. Atlantic critic David Sims said the film will captivate audiences and showcase "new delights that make you feel like you're watching a real '80s movie," while noting that the film is fast-paced and is "occupied most of the time with combat and plot action, leaving other details in the background." Los Angeles Times critic Justin Chang stated that the film "will stun most of its detractors into silence", while also praising the film, its tenderness and sentimentality. Entertainment Weekly reviewer Leah Greenblatt summed up her review of The Lego Movie 3 by saying that "much like Lego Dimensions, its construction clearly feels more like an action blockbuster than a conventional animated film, yet its moments of humor are the most pleasant moments of herself".

However, some critics felt that the film was too long in length and that the overall story was not deep or entertaining enough for its abnormally long running time. The New Yorker's Anthony Lane opined: "The film runs over two and a half hours, an unheard of time for an animated presentation once you reach the climax; it's not until that very last moment that the film lets you see a choreography of the sequences. of magnificent action, they are scenes that are second to none when it concludes". The Guardian reviewer Peter Bradshaw criticized the "bitingly interwoven plot", noting that despite having an interesting setting and world, there is "absolutely nothing memorable, either visual or argumentative". San Francisco Chronicle critic Mick LaSalle called it "a sometimes too hollow story with inappropriately long running time". The Telegraph's Robbie Collin said the film "is just a sad rushed vision with no creative outlet."