Lego Dimensions (film)

Lego Dimensions is a 2022 American computer-animated comedy film produced by Warner Animation Group and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures based on the videogame of the same name. It is the sixth installment in the LEGO Extended Universe (LEU). Directed and written by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller and produced by Dan Lin and Roy Lee, the film sees the return of Chris Pratt, Elizabeth Banks, Emma Stone, Will Arnett, Elijah Wood, and Zack Galifianakis reprising their roles from previous films in the franchise.

Lego Dimensions premiered in Los Angeles on August 27, 2022, and and was released in the United States on September 2 in IMAX, 4DX, RealD 3D, and Dolby Cinema by Warner Bros. Pictures.

Premise
After a strange confluence that affects space and time, a series of incidents begin throughout the multiverse that puts everyone on alert. Seeing an opportunity, The Joker sets out to escape Arkham Asylum, hatching a plan to begin a plan of anarchy and dominance (targeting his enemy Batman) by taking advantage of the apparent imbalance in the multiverse. Meanwhile, things only get worse and different heroes suddenly find themselves as the essential part to stop the instability of existence and the line of defense against a deadly plan.

Cast

 * Chris Pratt as Emmet Brickowsk.
 * Elizabeth Banks as Lucy / Wyldstyle, a Master Builder, next chosen and Emmet's girlfriend.
 * Emma Stone as Jane Dangerburger, a hyper-intelligent girl and the right hand and love interest of Brody Reyes.
 * Will Arnett as Bruce Wayne / Batman, a DC Comics superhero who is a Master Builder.
 * Elijah Wood as Brody Reyes, a man previously persecuted by the FBI and the law after being wrongfully framed.
 * Dave Franco as Lloyd, the Green Ninja and leader of the Secret Ninja Force.
 * Zack Galifianakis as Joker, a clown-themed villain in Gotham City and Batman's archenemy, who defines himself by his conflict with him.
 * Rosario Dawson as Barbara Gordon / Batgirl, a police commissioner of Gotham.
 * Alison Brie as Unikitty, a A Master Builder who is a unicorn-horned cat.
 * Michael Cera as Dick Grayson / Robin, a 18-year-old teenager who was adopted by Batmanr.
 * Michael Peña as Kai, the hotheaded red Ninja of Fire and Nya's brother.

Development
The film entered development in late 2017, with plans to release the film in 2020. Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were tapped as writers and directors and like the previous films. It received the green light in April 2018, after a basic outline was drawn up to form the story arc. A directors' room was set up the following month to properly develop the film iterations of the franchise and to discuss the central plot points. Producers Dan Lin and Roy Lee reiterated plans for the film later in 2018 and said that Lord and Miller had a story idea for the film.

Kevin Tsujihara mentioned that the story treatments were being viewed "closely, very closely" from the video game Lego Dimensions. Lord and Miller were later asked how much planning they had put into the film while it was in development in previous months, to which they replied that they knew how far they wanted to go with the story and the implications it would have on the franchise. They said that by planning the film they were also actively designing the future of the franchise in advance "it's crucial what we're doing; It can't be arbitrary but it's solid [... ] Until now, the previous Lego movies had pretty clear definitive endings, and of course, they weren't particularly connected." The directors also said that the film would introduce many more characters from popular culture and stated that future films could explore them properly.

Lord and Miller chose to make a behavioral outline before starting the script to adopt an idea that involved the coexistence of the characters: initially, four central characters were identified, who would be followed closely and then their paths would meet in the climax of the film. However, that factor was removedafter confirming that a centralized plot would make the film easier to watch and it was eventually abandoned entirely by the filmmakers. In total, the film spent five and a half years in development, with a budget of approximately $100 million. Lord and Miller described this as a long and intricate process.

Writing
Lord and Miller agreed to be writers after discussing a basic set of ideas they had for the film. By June 2018 they began to work on the script and devised the basic story, although at that time the treatments began. They described the film as "definitely more narratively mature than the previous films." Although the screenplay is credited to Lord and Miller, Seth Grahame-Smith spent a sixth-month stint working as additional support before leaving the project in late 2018. By August 2018 announced that the first draft of the script was completed. Lord and Miller stated that the film would not adapt the story of the original video game and would only be loosely inspired.

In the writing process, the script would go through "a lot of crazy iterations of what it could be", although in the evaluation of the film it was found that some of these complementary stories did not work and Lord and Miller were reluctant. After various projections and suggestions it was evaluated after three months and by May 2019 it was revealed that the script for Lego Dimensions had been completed. Editor Jeffrey Ford said that seven versions of the film were created before the script was turned in. The directors were asked if it would be difficult to meld the film's environments, "No," they said, "because we actually designed the film specifically to show a story organically." The initial storyboard differentiated the importance of separate arcs with different groups of characters, but Lin felt that the balance of the film was a combination of confluence between the different stories told. As of January 2019, seven to ten different ending scenes and endings were made for the film from the start of writing. Lin stated in July 2019: "My personal opinion is that Lord and Miller's work has been fantastic, they will do a great job and we support them in their ideas".

Production
Warner Bros. announced in July 2018 that a untitled Lego film, would be released on July 16, 2021. By October 13, 2018, the title of the film was announced. Animal Logic signed on in April 2019 to provide animation during production, the studio had already participated in the previous films of the franchise. Due to directors' scheduling conflicts, production did not begin in Canada until August 19, 2019 and then was put on hold in March 2020 as a safety measure due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A decision on when to resume production was originally expected in several weeks, but was pushed back to May. Production resumed on June 28, 2020 and continued until December 19, 2021, concluding after two years.

Casting
Casting began in October 2018 with the signature of Chris Pratt. In December, Elizabeth Banks and Will Arnett confirmed their return. Elijah Wood and Emma Stone, who played Brody Reyes and Jane Dangerburger in The Billion Brick Race (2019), stated that they were willing to return to their roles in the film and by April 2019, The Wrap reported that he would appear in the film. Later that month, Laurence Fishburne joined the film's cast to play an unknown central character.

In August 2019, Zack Galifianakis, Rosario Dawson, and Michael Cera confirmed that they would reprise their roles after placing requests with producer Dan Lin and executives at Warner Bros. That same month, Dave Franco, Alison Brie, Dwayne Johnson, Daniella Pineda, Channing Tatum, Jason Momoa, Cobie Smulders, Anika Noni Rose, Kristen Wiig joined the cast of the film with Momoa playing his role as Aquaman from the DC Extended Universe.

Marketing
Lego Dimensions had a marketing campaign with reported costs of up to $150 million. Exclusive images from the film were presented at CinemaCon on April 28, 2022. The first trailer was released online on May 2, 2022, four months before the film's release. The debut received praise from critics and fans and became a global trend on social media. The trailer reached 231.7 million views in its first 24 hours, setting the sixth-most viewed trailer in one day. Beginning June 7, Warner Bros. went on a three-week promotional tour in Mexico City, Tokyo, London, Copenhagen, San Diego, and Los Angeles. A second trailer was released on July 17 and was immensely publicized by the media. A presentation at San Diego Comic-Con featuring the cast was held the same month. Like the rest of the franchise, The Lego Group released toys based on scenes from the film.

Theatrical
Lego Dimensions premiered on August 27, 2022, at the Regency Village Theater. The film was originally scheduled for general release on July 16, 2021, but due to scheduling conflicts and then the COVID-19 pandemic, it was pushed back to May 20, 2022 and later to September 2, 2022.

Home media
Lego Dimensions was scheduled to stream on and HBO Max streaming service 45 days after its theatrical release, but was pushed back indefinitely on September 1.

Box Office
Lego Dimensions has grossed $377.7 million in the United States and Canada and $679.4 million in other territories for a worlwide total of $1.057 billion.

In the United States and Canada, the film was released on September 2, 2022 along with ''[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honk_for_Jesus._Save_Your_Soul Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul]'' in Labor Day four days weekend and was initially projected to debut between $75-90 million in 4159 theaters (including 200 IMAX screens). It made $43.2 million on its opening day (including $15.3 million from Tuesday and Thursday nights, a record for a September release), raising projections for a weekend of $95-140 million. It had a $127.3 million opening weekend over the four-day frame, finishing first at the box office, and setting records for the biggest opening weekend for a September and fall release, topping the records set by It (2017). It became the first pandemic-era animated film to hit $100 million in a three-day opening weekend and the seventh overall. In its second weekend, the film remained in first place with $74.5 million, a 49% drop. Lego Dimensions became the first animated film of 2022 in the region to cross the $300 million mark.

Outside the U.S. and Canada, the film made $25.7 million from 15 early offshore markets, and $163 million from 78 markets in its second weekend.

Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 90% of 278 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.0/10. The website's consensus reads, "Lego Dimensions is a great follow-up to connect all the vision of its fun predecessors, while also being a brilliant animated adventure in its own right." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 81 out of 100, based on 44 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 91% of audience members gave it a positive score (with an average rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars), with 79% saying they would definitely recommend it.

Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune rated the film three out of four stars and wrote that Lego Dimensions was a solid entry in the franchise, praising the writing, dialogue, and animation, but labeling the character development as "weakly conceived". Writing for Rolling Stone, David Fear said that compared to the original Lego Movie, "Lego Dimensions now feels like a contractual evolution that stands out ever further, it's drastic in squeezing out the best parts that made the previous ones a blast to watch and therefore a success in doing so." Variety stated, "Of the last three Lego movies, Lego Dimensions is one of the most compelling to watch; it's exciting, a twist on everything animated. But that's not all. The Lego franchise has been through a lot so far but it hasn't completely back to their greatest highs, this film is definitely a showcase of what they can do." The Jewish Chronicle critic Linda Marric rated the film four out of five stars and wrote, "Overall, Lego Dimensions is a successful movie in almost every respect in providing an entertaining story."

Other reviews were more mixed. Mark Feeney of The Boston Globe stated, "The movie has its moments, the story is amazing, but this doesn't support poor development. It's also too long and unnecessarily long for the story it wants to tell." Katie Walsh, writing for Tribune News Service, he praised the voice acting, key story moments, and called the film "an improvement and innovation", but added that Lego Dimensions "isn't exactly satisfying, sometimes lacking the real kind of excitement in The Lego Movie".

Possible sequel
In November 2022, Lord and Miller were in talks about the possibility of a Lego Dimensions direct sequel.