THE LEGO MOVIE TIPPED TO BUILD BIG BOX OFFICE

The Lego Movie is expected to block (weak pun intended) the continued dominance of Ride Along at the top of the box office, where it has been parked for the past three weeks. The Warner Bros. animated comedy, which has been the beneficiary of critical raves and will likely generate ardent word-of-mouth, may earn as much as $50-60 million at the box office this weekend, according to tracking studies. That’s about what the movie, which features the voices of Chris Pratt, Will Ferrell, Elizabeth Banks, Morgan Freeman, Channing Tatum, and Liam Neeson, cost to produce. The Los Angeles Times reported today (Friday) that it is on track to become Fandango’s second-biggest advance ticket-seller among animated films ever, behind only Pixar’s 2010 hit Toy Story 3. Also opening this weekend is George Clooney’s The Monuments Men, about a real-life World War II band on a mission to rescue a Nazi haul of stolen art treasures, While the Sony Pictures and 20th Century Fox co-production has received some wild praise from a handful of critics, most have slammed it. Despite a cast that includes Clooney, Matt Damon, Bill Murray, Cate Blanchett and John Goodman, the movie is likely to earn only around $15-20 million according to industry pundits. It cost about $70 million to make. A third arrival will be The Weinstein Co.’s Vampire Academy, which was not shown to critics. It’s expected to earn around $8-10 million.