Warner Bros. Boss Calls 'The LEGO Movie 2' Performance "Puzzling"

Ahead of its opening earlier this month, The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part was expected to have a solid performance at the box office, including a strong opening weekend. However, the film faltered, underperforming its estimates. It's something that Warner Bros. boss Kevin Tsujihara calls "puzzling".

In an interview with The Los Angeles Times, Tsujihara spoke about the film's underperformance, noting that the results are not what they expected given the strength of the franchise over all.

"It didn't do as well as tracking would've suggested, which was a little puzzling," he said. "The first movie was so fresh and so different. We need to continually rethink the experience, but the LEGO brand is incredibly strong. On the game side, it's been an incredible franchise. We acquired [LEGO video game maker] TT Games 12 years ago, and it really was a cornerstone of everything we've done in games."

The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part was expected to bring in $45 million - $55 million its opening weekend. It's a number that was lower than the first film's impressive $69 million opening, but still a respectable sum. However, while it did win its opening weekend, it topped the box office with $34 million, a much lower number than the projected sum. Currently, the film is sitting at around $84 million domestically.

What's especially curious about the box office underperformance is the fact that the film wasn't bad. The film earned largely positive reviews, including one from ComicBook.com's JK Schmidt. However, despite being well-received critically, it's possible that the delay between The LEGO Movie and its sequel may have had a detrimental impact on its box office. The eagerly-anticipated sequel came five years after the first film -- an awful long time to wait when one considers that two spin-off films, the LEGO Batman Movie and The LEGO Ninjago Movie both came out in 2017.

Despite the lackluster box office performance. It sounds like there's ground to cover in video games and it's not all over for movies, either. Two further LEGO movies, the Billion Brick Race and an untitled LEGO Batman Movie sequel are both in development at Warner Bros.

The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part is in theaters now.