'The LEGO Movie 2' Wins Weekend Box Office But Still Disappoints, Liam Neeson's 'Cold Pursuit' Gets Iced

The weekend box office numbers are in, and even though the animated sequel The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part took the top spot, it performed well below expectations.

The LEGO Movie 2 was expected to open with at least $50 million last weekend, but it only ended up with a haul of $34.4 million. That's roughly half of what The LEGO Movie earned in its opening weekend back in 2014. Is this a case of franchise fatigue for the building brick property? Or did the marketing for the sequel just not appeal to audiences this time around?Variety and Box Office Mojo have word on the disappointing numbers for the LEGO Movie 2 box office. They point out that one possible reason for the film's downfall is the audience demographics are skewing a bit younger this time. For the original LEGO Movie, only 41% of the audience was under 18. Meanwhile, The LEGO Movie 2 had an audience where 47% was under 18. That means this might have appealed more to kids this time around and the grown-ups in charge may have decided to sit out until it hits home video.

At least The LEGO Movie 2 wasn't the lowest performer of the franchise. That was The LEGO Ninjago Movie back in 2017 with a $20 million opening weekend. That movie in particular might be one of the reasons audiences didn't turn out in bigger numbers. People may just be tired of the meta LEGO movie style and didn't see the sequel as necessary big screen viewing.

Honestly, that's a real shame, because I think The LEGO Movie 2 is nearly on par with the original movie as far as quality is concerned. It tells a heartfelt story about siblings and growing up through the animated LEGO world, and it does so with some surprising twists and turns throughout. So I wish audiences would give it the attention it deserves in theaters.

As for the rest of the box office, What Men Want landed in second place with $19 million. The Adam Shankman comedy starring Taraji P. Henson put a female spin on the Mel Gibson comedy What Women Want from 2000. The performance of the R-rated comedy was pretty much on par with what Paramount Pictures was anticipating.

In third place, there's Liam Neeson's latest action thriller Cold Pursuit. Opening with just $10.9 million, the film is one of the lowest performers in Liam Neeson's career. And while it might be easy to blame the headlines focusing on his highly publicized, self-admitted formerly racist behavior, the film actually slightly exceeded expectations. Even so, opening in third place with that low of a number isn't necessarily the best news, and it's likely the movie won't have very long legs with heavy hitters like Captain Marvel and How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World on the way.

The rest of the top five was rounded out by The Upside and Glass, both holding steady with only a drop of 16.8% and 32.7% respectively. The Upside has crossed the $85 million mark while Glass is less than $2 million away from crossing the $100 million milestone at the domestic box office.

Wrapping up last weekend's new releases, the creepy kid horror flick The Prodigy debuted in sixth place with $5.8 million. That's a little below the $7 million-$9 million from projections, but the movie only cost $6 million to produce, so it could still end up being profitable in the end.

This coming weekend will shake things up with the release of Isn't It Romantic, Alita: Battle Angel and Happy Death Day 2U. Considering the Valentine's Day holiday, it's likely the romantic comedy will come out on top, but we'll find out soon enough.