With the release of The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part right around the corner, let’s take a quick look at the previous entries in the LEGO cinematic universe and see how they measure up to other animated films of their respective years.

So without further ado…

Image: Warner Bros. Pictures

The LEGO Movie (2014)

Budget: $60 - $65 million

Directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller, The LEGO Movie opened in February of 2014, six months before Guardians of the Galaxy would make Chris Pratt a bonafide action star. Joined by a cast that included Will Ferrell, Elizabeth Banks, Will Arnett, Alison Brie, Liam Neeson, and Morgan Freeman, the film was critically acclaimed, with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 95%.

“Boasting beautiful animation, a charming voice cast, laugh-a-minute gags, and a surprisingly thoughtful story, The Lego Movie is colorful fun for all ages.” — Rotten Tomatoes Consensus

Despite the acclaim and star-studded voice cast, the film was only the 4th highest grossing animated film of the year. It was beaten by Rio 2 ($500 million), How to Train Your Dragon 2 ($621 million), and Big Hero 6 ($657 million), but was still an undisputed success. 2014 was a smaller year for animated films overall with no film making over $700 million.

Image: Warner Bros. Pictures

The LEGO Batman Movie (2017)

Budget: $80 million

With a slightly larger budget and an equally star-studded cast that included Will Arnett, Zach Galifianakis, Michael Cera, Rosario Dawson, and Ralph Fiennes, The LEGO Batman Movie was released in January of 2017 to great reviews but a slightly lower than expected box office take.

“The movie slams the comedy pedal to the floor, racing through so many visual and verbal gags that it begs to be watched more than once.“ — The New York Post

A LEGO movie centered around one of the most popular characters in pop culture (and one of the most talked about characters of the original film) with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 90% was expected to out-perform its predecessor but it came up short by more than $100 million. Thankfully, the small budget meant that this film was still a financial success.

The LEGO Batman Movie was the 5th highest grossing animated film of 2017 behind Cars 3 ($383 million), The Boss Baby ($527 million), Coco ($806 million), and Despicable Me 3 ($1.034 billion). This was clearly a stronger year for animation.

Image: Warner Bros. Pictures

The LEGO Ninjago Movie (2017)

Budget: $70 million

This was an odd one.

Released in September of 2017, six months after The LEGO Batman Movie, The LEGO Ninjago Movie was the first LEGO movie based on an original LEGO property. The cast included Dave Franco, Justin Theroux, Fred Armisen, Abbi Jacobson, Olivia Munn, Kumail Nanjiani, and Jackie Chan.

“Still plenty entertaining and occasionally very funny, “Ninjago” nonetheless displays symptoms of diminishing returns, and Lego might want to shuffle its pieces a bit before building yet another film with this same model.” — Variety

Critics enjoyed the humor once again but felt that the story lacked originality. With a Rotten Tomatoes score of 56%, it was the first rotten LEGO film in the franchise and the lowest grossing to date. When factoring in its marketing budget, which is often as much as a film’s production budget, this could also be seen as the first LEGO movie that was a financial failure.

The LEGO Ninjago movie was the 10th highest grossing animated film of 2017. It finished behind films like Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie ($125 million), Smurfs: The Lost Village ($197 million), and *shudder* The Emoji Movie ($217 million).