The Lego Movie: Industry
TASK 1: Read the following information and answer the following questions in your book.
Warner Bros. Pictures is a major player in the motion picture industry. WB Pictures produces a wide slate of big-hitting box office movies each year that are released across the globe. 2016 marked the tenth consecutive year that WB Pictures crossed the £3 billion mark at the global box office.
Dan Lin, a Taiwanese-born American film producer initially conceived the idea of the The Lego Movie film in 2008 - he left Warner Bros. as an Executive to become CEO of Lin Pictures (a TV and film production company based at Warner Bros.). Lin and producer, Roy Lee (who is known for making American remakes of Asian film - like The Ring) discussed the idea.
Lin is known to have researched Lego heavily before he pitched the idea to them and had to convince them it would be a success. Following the release, The Lego Movie challenged the balance between the medium of film and marketing techniques, just as Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014) also did.
Writers/directors Christopher Miller and Phil Lord initially pitched their idea for The Lego Movie whilst ’21 Jump Street’ was in production.
Warner Bros. loved Miller and Lord’s take on this and they both wrote and directed this, their third film. Following this, they were then asked to also write the script for the upcoming The Flash film.
Lin Pictures were the primary production company on The Lego Movie and Warner Bros. acted as the distributors.
The Lego Movie enabled Warner Bros. to become a major player in animation.
The Lego Movie supported Warner Bros. to work in conjunction with Lin on several more films, based on Lego merchandise, and gain critical success at the box office which they had been lacking.
QUESTIONS TO ANSWER
1. How much money does Warner Brothers make a year?
2. What company did Dan Lin form to make The Lego Movie in 2008?
3. Who produced The Lego Movie and who distributed it?
4. How did The Lego Movie evolve after the first film?
TASK 2: On a word document; collect Lego merchandise that is specifically related to The Lego Movie. Print these out and stick it into your book.
TASK 3: Read the following key information and answer the following questions in your book.
Lego’s status as a globally popular franchise has left a significant mark on today’s popular culture. Aside from the iconic plastic inter-locking bricks, there is now a plethora of accompanying merchandise, including ‘Minifigures’, construction kits and play sets aimed at a wide variety of different ages. Both the game and film had to be constructed to faithfully reflect and respect the universal Lego toy brand.
Given the worldwide success and love for the brand, it was obvious that the film was always going to be at least a cult success. Lego however did not produce the film, nor have the initial idea for the film. Lego were in fact cautious and felt the film might actually ‘hurt’ the brand rather than help it.
The main issue is that the film is a completely branded product - it is there in the name! It could have been seen as one long advert for the Lego brand, but with the narrative and stars it attracted, it ultimately was the blockbuster of the year.
The Lego brand works with Warner Brothers in various ways. The Warner Bros. conglomerate produces the Lego movies in conjunction with Lin Films. Warner Bros. distribute the films to a large number of countries theatrically, as well as use their own Warner Bros. subsidiaries to release the DVDs and BluRay discs. They also own the videogame division (Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment) who produce and release the video games. This is an example of vertical integration.
Vertical integration enables a business to maximise the potential of brand, in this case Lego. It gives the existing audience new experiences and further pleasures outside of the film and to reach new audiences e.g. non-cinema going video games players.
The budget for The Lego Movie was an estimated $60,000,000. It recovered this in its first weekend in the USA alone. BoxOfficeMoJo state it has a worldwide gross of over $311 million.
Lin, Lee, Lord and Miller all went onto produce the following Lego films; The Lego Batman Movie and The Lego Ninjago Movie (both released in 2017).
There are plans for The Lego Movie sequel and, a further spin off, The Billion Brick Race in 2019.
1. Explain the relationship between the film and Lego. Were there any issues?
2. How did vertical integration help to maximise the film's success?
Convergence
Digitally convergent media is when digital/online media content, networks and technologies are interconnected.
Video games consoles are an excellent example of a digitally convergent device; as well as play games you can also access social media, surf the internet, stream films and TV content and upload content into cloud based servers.
The video game offers 15 levels and 90 playable characters, many of which can be purchased as Minifigures, so the Lego brand benefits from this as both the game and the film also act as an advertisement for their consumer products.
The Lego Movie Video Game was the first Lego video game where everything in the gaming world was made out of bricks. This allowed a cross-over for the plastic construction bricks within a gaming world for audiences and vice versa - although it was not a game where you could use the bricks for construction like Minecraft (which Lego Worlds arguably mimics).
Cross-media products (Minifigures) were also available in some of the products. For example Emmet was available from EB Games and Gamestop, Radio DJ Robot from Walmart.
Cross-media content helps maximise profits and also improve reach to new customers. The Lego Movie Video game was released across all major video consoles and platforms (Microsoft X360, Sony PS3, Nintendo 3DS, Sony PS4, Nintendo WiiU, Xbox One and 360, Sony PSV and PC) in 2014.
In 2015 Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment made the game available on Apple iOS.
Lego Dimensions was released in 2015 by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. This followed the toys-to-life format of using Lego Minifigures and a toy pad, which is then played with the game. No more expansion packs will now be developed, mainly due to the lack of profit and the ever-increasing amount of Lego figures on the market.
Merchandise for the film and game are interchangeable as they include the same characters and worlds in the main.
The Lego Movie Video game was launched the same week as The Lego Movie.
The mobile video game is a port of a console game which meant there were two ways to control the action on the screen. This was either using direct touch controls or a virtual onscreen touch tad.
TASK 4: QUESTION TO ANSWER
1. Explain what convergence is in your own words.
2. What does a video game allow for its users to experience with reference to The Lego Movie?
3. What are the benefits of releasing a video game alongside a film such as The Lego Movie and The Lego Movie video game?
Regulation
Lego were keen to ensure that their reputation with parents was left intact and did not want the brand connected with inappropriate language, extreme violence and sexual scenes.
Although The Lego Movie was awarded a Universal film rating, The Pegi Award for The Lego Movie Game is ‘7’ years of age. This is as the content of the game includes ‘non-realistic looking violence towards fantasy characters’ and ‘violence that is set in a cartoon, slapstick or child like setting that could be upsetting to very young children’
TASK: Answer this final question.
1. Research and define the difference between why a film get a U rating rather than a PG rating. Look up the British Board of Film Classification.
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