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. The sequel of The Lego Movie (2014) and The Lego Movie 2 (2017), and the seventh film in the LEGO Extended Universe (LEU) stars an ensemble cast including Chris Pratt, Elizabeth Banks, Will Arnett, Alison Brie, Nick Offerman and Charley Day. In the film, Emmet, Wyldstyle 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 Pratt and Banks in early negotiations to return. 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. They adapted elements of the filmography of Steven Spielberg and Star Wars. 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, delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and concluded at the beginning of May 2023. Development on The Lego Movie 3 lasted for six year, on an approximate $100 million budget, and the film faced production difficulties, including story changes.

The Lego Movie 3 premiered in Los Angeles 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, animatiom, voice acting, screenplay and soundtrack, although some said it was not as "fresh" as its predeccesors. Was nominated at the 97th Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature and received numerous other accolades. The Lego Movie 3 earned $879.5 million worldwide, finishing its theatrical run as the eigth-highest-grossing film of 2024.

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. For 2018, 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)

In September 2022, it was revealed that Lorne Balfe would be the film's composer, return to the franchise after working on Lego Batman. On February 26, two full albums for the film were released by WaterTower Music: one featuring Balfe's score, and a soundtrack album featuring songs from the film including. Many artists appeared on the soundtrack, including 1980s icons and contemporary songs. The first single from the album was the remix version of "I Think We're Alone Now" by Tiffany Darwish, which was used in the teaser trailer for the film. A remix of "Take On Me" was released as the second single on February 14. Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" was also included on the official soundtrack, as was Grandson's song "Dirty" used in the end credits. A music lyric video for the song featuring footage from the film was released on February 29.

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 October 1, 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. The multi-partnership also includes exclusive products at Chevrolet stores, and as of January 10, 2024, McDonald's began selling The Lego Movie 3 Happy Meals, which come with one of ten toys based on the characters from the movie. movie, and special figures. Unique billboards and cable shows were also included in the promotion. Overall, Warner Bros. Pictures spent $235 million on advertising and promotion costs, the largest for the franchise, and for an animated film distributed by the studio.

Theatrical
The film held its world premiere at the Regency Village Theater in Los Angeles on January 27, 2024 and was released in the United States on February 2, 2024, in Dolby Cinema, RealD 3D, IMAX and IMAX 3D.

Home media
The Lego Movie 3 was released on Digital HD on April 29, 2024, and on Blu-ray, 4K Ultra-HD Blu-Ray, Blu-Ray 3D, and DVD on July 4, 2024. An extended cut of the film is included in the home entertainment release, 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 $392.4 million in the United States and Canada and $486.6 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $849.1 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. Deadline Hollywood calculated the film's net profit as $310.8 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". On March 29, 2024, it earned $800 million in ticket sales, becoming the second-highest-grossing film in the franchise, behind Lego Dimensions.

Presale tickets for the film went on sale at 12:01 a.m. EST on January 15, 2024 and retail sites crashed for many users, like Fandango. The sites announced that the film reaching one of the highest anticipated sales for an animated film. Projections for its opening weekend in the United States and Canada were being continuously revised upwards starting from $100 million to as high as $150 million. By the week of its release, opening weekend projections had reached over $135 million. The film earned $71.2 million on its opening day and included $25 million from Thursday previews, a record for an animated film, with $4.1 million coming from IMAX theaters. It debuted with $140.8 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). Anthony D'Alessandro of Deadline Hollywood described the collapse as "expected with such high anticipation." The film remained at number one in its second weekend, seeing a steep 68.8% droP and fell to second in its third. Forbes said the film saw a bloated weekend, amounting to a big drop, although I still consider it a "safe box office bet". The film surpassed $350 million on March 12 and remained in the top ten through its ninth weekend.

Internationally, The Lego Movie 3 secured a release in approximately 68 countries, opening in 63 territories as of January 26, 2024. Based on tracking, the film was projected to open between $95 million and $150 million. 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 of $125.3 million from 57 countries on 17,630 screens, exceeding expectations. It had the biggest opening for the franchise in the UK and Ireland ($28.7 million), Australia ($16.1 million), and in the Philippines, Indonesia and Peru. According to The Guardian, the outperformance in the UK is due to the high anticipation caused by the film's marketing. It topped the box office in Spain and Australia for five consecutive weekends and opened with $11.3 million in Germany, the best of the year for an animated film. It opened to 87% of its total market in the first weekend. IMAX earned $21.4 million from its opening weekend outside the US and Canada. It added $41.7 million in its second weekend, a 66.7% drop from 15,600 screens in 65 countries. In its third weekend it earned $19.1 million (an drop of 57%); the film fell to number two and three in most territories, although it became the biggest film of 2024 at the time. The film had a late release in China on February 21 and had an opening weekend of $52 million, the franchise's second-biggest opening and far surpassing The Lego Movie 2's total gross there ($8.9 million). Variety highlighted that Lego Dimensions had the advantage of receiving a coveted day-and-date release with China, while The Lego Movie 3 did not secure an initial release date in the country. Its largest markets were China ($132.3 million), the United Kingdom ($71.4 million), Australia ($36.6 million) Germany ($25.7 million), Japan ($16.3 million) and Spain ($12.1 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 87% overall positive score. The Lego Movie 3 received positive response from critics, who, while considering it inferior to its two predecessors, called it one of the best films in the franchise, praising the cast's animation and voice acting, the musical score, and the action sequences.

Future

 * Further information: LEGO Extended Universe

Producer Dan Lin commented in June 2024 on the possibility of a fourth The Lego Movie, saying, "There's been talk of it, but there's not really an intention to do it now or very soon" and added that The Lego Movie 3 acts as a "personal conclusion for these characters".