Every Major Cinematic Universe Ranked From Worst To Best

Only three movies in and the Lego Universe is already beginning to suffer from the law of diminishing returns, from both a critical and commercial standpoint. That's to be expected when Phil Lord and Christopher Miller's wildly inventive and frequently hilarious Lego Movie is your launchpad, but the decline in quality between that Academy Award-nominated animated feature and last year's Ninjago has been drastic to say the least.

After The Lego Movie and The Lego Batman Movie both scored over 90% on Rotten Tomatoes and earned almost $800m combined at the box office, it seemed as though there was a new animated franchise in town that deftly balanced both laughs and smarts to appeal to adults, children and entire families alike.

Unfortunately, much of that goodwill was undone by The Lego Ninjago Movie, a bland and derivative family flick that was released to middling reviews and a massively disappointing box office return of $123m that has called the franchise's continuing appeal into question.

With both a Lego Movie sequel and The Billion Brick Race penciled in the release calendar for next year, 2019 will prove to be a crucial year for the Lego Universe. Can it recapture the heights of its first two installments or will it continue descending into mediocrity, and perhaps even oblivion? Time, and money, will tell.