The Lego Batman Movie

Plot

Three years after saving the Lego Universe with Emmet and Wyldstyle, Batman continues fighting crime in Gotham City, but during his latest mission to stop the Joker from destroying the city, he hurts his arch-rival's feelings by telling him he is not as important in his life as he thinks he is, leading Joker to seek the ultimate revenge on him. The following day, Batamn's alter ego, Bruce Wayne, attends the city's winter gala, which is celebrating both the retirement of Commissioner Gordon and the ascension of his daughter Barbara as the city's new police commissioner, only to be infuriated by Barbara's plans to restructure the police to function without the need of Batman. Without warning, Joker crashes the party with the city's other villains, all of whom surrender, with the exception of Harley Quinn, who disappears during the confusion.

Suspecting his arch-rival is up to something, Batman plots to steal Superman's Phantom Zone Projector, a device that can banish anyone to the Phantom Zone - a prison housing some of the most dangerous villains in the Lego multiverse. Just as he plans his heist of the device, Alfred intervenes and advises him to take charge of Dick Grayson, whom Bruce unwittingly adopted as his ward during the gala. Relunctantly agreeing to do so, Batman fosters Dick as Robin, whereupon the pair successfully recover the Projector from the Fortress of Solitude, and break into Arkham Asylum to send Joker to the Phantom Zone. Annoyed at his recklessness, and suspecting his arch-rival wanted to be sent there, Barbara locks up the pair.

While the Projector is being seized as evidence, Harley steals it back as part of Joker's plan and frees him, allowing him to return to Gotham with all the villains that had been trapped in the Phantom Zone. Realizing that the city does need him, Barbara releases Batman and Robin and teams up with them and Alfred to stop the Joker. Although Batman finds himself able to trust and rely on his new team, upon reaching Wayne Island, he chooses to send them away, rather than losing them like his parents. Upon facing him alone, Joker express belief that Batman is incapable of change and zaps him to the Phantom Zone, before stealing the Batcave's stash of confiscated bombs. Arriving in the Zone, Batman witnesses the harm his selfishness has caused to everyone and slowly accepts his greatest fear. Making a deal with the Zone's gatekeeper, Phyllis, to be allowed back to Gotham in order to retrieve the Zone's escaped prisoners, Batman arrives in time to save his team-mates, apologizing to them for his actions, and requesting their help to stop Joker.

Realizing that Joker plans to use the explosives he took to destroy the city's Energy Facility, thus causing the city to come apart and be destroyed, Batman turns Barbara into Batgirl, before he and his team, along with the city's other villains, who felt neglected by Joker, manage to successfully send back the escaped villains to the Phantom Zone. However, the group fail to stop Joker's bombs going off, as the explosion begins to tear the city apart at the plate's beneath it. Knowing this was his fault, Batman reluctantly convinces Joker that he is the true reason for being the hero he is, before they, their friends and allies, and the city's inhabitants, chain-link themselves together and pull the plates back together, saving the city.

With the city saved, Batman prepares to be taken back into the Phantom Zone to fulfill his bargain, only to be rejected by Phyllis, who chooses to let him remain after seeing how much he had changed in order to save everyone. Batman allows Joker and the rest of his rogues gallery to temporarily escape, with the confidence that whenever they return, they will be no match for the combined team of himself, Robin, Batgirl, and Alfred.

Production

In October 2014, it was announced that Will Arnett was set to reprise his role in the Lego Batman spin-off film, which Chris McKay would direct for a 2017 release. McKay was earlier attached to direct The Lego Movie Sequel, but it had been pushed back. On October 30, 2014, it was announced that Australia-based animation studio Animal Logic was in talks to produce the next three Lego films, and the New South Wales government would make financial contributions to all the films.

Casting

On July 16, 2015, The Hollywood Reporter reported that Arnett's Arrested Development co-star Michael Cera was set to voice Robin, while Dan Lin, Roy Lee, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were announced as producers. On August 12, 2015, it was revealed that Zach Galifianakis would voice the Joker in the film. On October 16, 2015, Rosario Dawson signed on to voice Barbara Gordon, the daughter of police commissioner James Gordon, who herself later becomes Batgirl. On November 3, 2015, Ralph Fiennes was cast in the film to voice the character Alfred Pennyworth. On November 9, 2015, Deadline first reported that Mariah Carey would voice Commissioner Gordon, which was later confirmed by The Hollywood Reporter to be false, and that she would instead voice the Mayor of Gotham City, McCaskill. In July 2016, it was revealed Jenny Slate would voice Harley Quinn in the movie, and on November 30, 2016, it was announced that Billy Dee Williams would reprise his role of Harvey Dent from Tim Burton's Batman film. On January 31, 2017, Chris Hardwick announced on an episode of his Comedy Central program @midnight that he is part of the film's cast. On February 2, 2017, one week before the film's release, it was revealed that Héctor Elizondo was voicing Commissioner Gordon. Conan O'Brien, Riki Lindhome, Zoë Kravitz, and more were revealed to round out the cast of villains on February 3, 2017.

Soundtrack

The film's original score was composed by Lorne Balfe and features Red Hot Chili Peppers' drummer Chad Smith. The soundtrack was released on February 3, 2017, on CD and for digital download, while the vinyl version will be released on May 19, 2017.

Release

The film's main premiere was conducted in Dublin, Ireland on January 29, 2017, whereupon it went into general release from 8 February; it was released in Denmark on 9 February, and in the United States the day after. Its overall release saw movie theatres displaying the film in 3D, RealD 3D, Dolby Cinema and IMAX, though the latter format was restricted to 2D for North America, while international countries were able to view it in IMAX 3D.

Marketing

The first teaser trailer for The Lego Batman Movie was released on March 24, 2016, and features the song "Black and Yellow" by Wiz Khalifa. It was attached to showings of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice in theatres. A second teaser trailer was released on March 28, 2016, and features references to all live action iterations of Batman, from the 1960's Batman TV series to Batman v Superman. A third trailer was released on July 23, 2016. A fourth trailer was released on November 4, 2016. A Story Pack for the toys-to-life video game Lego Dimensions based on The Lego Batman Movie was released on February 10, 2017, alongside the film. The pack adds a six-level story campaign adapting the events of the film, and includes playable figures of Robin and Batgirl, a driveable Batwing, and a constructible gateway model based on the Batcomputer. A Fun Pack including Excalibur Batman and his Bionic Steed was also released the same day.

On January 14, 2017, at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Chevrolet unveiled a life-sized Lego Batmobile inspired by the design featured in the film, constructed from around 350,000 Lego pieces. As a related promotion, a Bat-Signal (alternating between Batman's emblem and the Chevrolet logo) was projected on the Renaissance Center over the weekend, and Chevrolet released a new television commercial tying into the film, featuring the Batmobile as a crossover with its ongoing "Real People, Not Actors" campaign.

Warner Bros. released several promotional tie-ins on the week of the movie's release. LEGO billboard versions of several TV shows were shown outside of the studio lot, that took 300 hours to make out of 10,000 bricks. The Big Bang Theory included a LEGO version of the opening sequence in the episode "The Locomotion Reverberation" that first aired on CBS. In addition, the network aired two commercials featuring Batman and the cast.

During the week of February 6-8, The CW released special LEGO end cards for Supergirl, The Flash, DC's Legends of Tomorrow and Arrow respectively. All four DC shows also include Batman's appearance in the Berlanti Productions logo that fetaured a new recording from Greg Berlanti's real-life father.

Box office

As of April 2, 2017, The Lego Batman Movie has grossed $172.7 million in the United States and Canada and $124.5 million in other territories, for a worldwide gross of $297.2 million, against a production budget of $80 million.

In the United States and Canada, The Lego Batman Movie opened alongside two other sequels, Fifty Shades Darker and John Wick: Chapter 2, and was projected to gross around $60 million in its opening weekend. It earned $2.2 million from Thursday night previews and $15 million on Friday. It went on to open with $53 million, finishing first at the box office. In its second weekend, the film grossed $32.7 million (a drop of 38.4%), again topping the box office; with the additional President's Day holiday on Monday, it made a total of $42.7 million for the weekend. In its third weekend of release, the film dropped to second at the box office, behind newcomer Get Out, grossing $19.2 million (a drop of 41.2%).

Outside North America the film was simultaneously released in 61 countries, and was expected to gross around $40 million over its first three days. It ended up grossing $37 million in its opening weekend, including $9.3 million in the United Kingdom, $2.6 million in Mexico, $2.3 million in Germany and $2.2 million in Russia.

Critical response

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 90%, based on 228 reviews, with an average rating of 7.6/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "The Lego Batman Movie continues its block-buster franchise's winning streak with another round of dizzyingly funny – and beautifully animated – family-friendly mayhem." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 75 out of 100, based on 48 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale.

Mike Ryan of Uproxx gave the film a positive review, praising its comedy, and saying: "The LEGO Batman Movie isn’t the same experience as watching The LEGO Movie, but I also don’t think it's trying to be. It’s trying to be a fun superhero movie with clever callbacks to previous Batman films (every single Batman movie all the way back to the 1940s serials are referenced) that can, at least, provide DC superhero fans with a taste of fun amidst all the doom and gloom. (That can either be a reference to 'the real world' or the current DC Cinematic Universe films, you can choose either one you want or both.) And at that, The LEGO Batman Movie succeeds." Chris Nashawaty of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a "B+" and wrote, "LEGO Batman revs so fast and moves so frenetically that it becomes a little exhausting by the end. It flirts with being too much of a good thing. But rarely has corporate brainwashing been so much fun and gone down with such a delightful aftertaste." Justin Chang of the Los Angeles Times was positive in his review, saying, "In its best moments, this gag-a-minute Bat-roast serves as a reminder that, in the right hands, a sharp comic scalpel can be an instrument of revelation as well as ridicule."