Apparently there’s more to the economics of Lego than the massive wads of cash parents spend on sets for their kids (and themselves). EconPop, the group that previously analyzed the economics of Ghostbusters, has returned to validate your assertion that The Lego Movie isn’t just for kids and is actually a Very Important Film that is totally okay for a childless adult to own on Blu-ray.


On the surface and at Fox News, The Lego Movie may appear to be a critique of capitalism, mostly because Will Ferrell’s character is named President Business. But as host Andrew Heaton points out, the film can be seen as a commentary on the superiority of emergent order over centralized planning—or, in layman’s terms, that centralized bureaucracies (looking at you, USSR) have a tendency to go horribly awry because “experts,”no matter how smart, don’t have the specialized know-how of locals. Therefore, the theory goes, if you leave governance in the hands of the people at large, everything from highway safety to the price of consumer goods will sort itself out. Now go spend $2,000 on a Lego bust of Darth Maul already.

