The Newest Animated Winner?

Looks like a #1 opening for Warner Bros.

“The Lego Movie” racked up $400,000 in 10 p.m. shows on Thursday, while “The Monuments Men” enjoyed a solid $550,000 debut.

Despite “The Monuments Men”s’ early lead, “The Lego Movie” is picking up steam in the daylight hours. It has generated an estimated $2 million by mid-day Friday, according to an individual with knowledge of the totals.

The first animated movie from Warner Bros. in three years is expected to open to north of $40 million. Many box office prognosticators expect that figure could climb even higher, depending on the severity of the winter storms that are expected to hit the East Coast this weekend.

In a promising sign, ”The Lego Movie” is on track to become the second-biggest advance ticket-seller among all animated films, right behind 2010′s “Toy Story 3,” Fandango told TheWrap earlier this week. ...

Warners is one of the only entertainment conglomerates that doesn't have its own feature animation studio or a bunch of animated features lined up on the tarmac, waiting to go.

In fact, it used to be that the WB was a death chamber for long-form, theatrical animation. Quest for Camelot, The Iron Giant and other big-screen animated projects sufferered short runs and low grosses at the hands of Warners distribution. But no more. Now animated features do as well at Warners as anywhere else.

As of yesterday (Thursday), there were still two animated features in the Box Office Top Tne. The Nut Job (#9) had a total domestic gross of $51,272,664, not at all bad for an independent feature. Disney's Frozen was hanging in at #4, with a grand total of $361,764,626.

By Sunday, there will still be two animated features in the upper ranks, but The Nut Job won't be one of them. It will have been replaced by The Lego Movie and (probably) skittered down to 12th or 13th place.