AT THE BOX OFFICE, LITTLE PLASTIC BRICKS HAVE LEGS

Sorry, George Clooney. Hollywood’s biggest star, at least for the moment, is a Lego.

“The Lego Movie,” initially questioned by some film veterans as little more than an offering for very young children, stunned this movie capital over the weekend by snapping together about $69.1 million in North American ticket sales. That astounding result was on par with Pixar’s “Cars,” which went on to take in more than $500 million worldwide in 2006, after adjusting for inflation.

“The Lego Movie” cost Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow $60 million to make, after accounting for tax rebates, a relatively low price for a 3-D animated film. (This animated picture’s lack of complicated fur or hair — it’s an all-plastic affair — helped keep costs down.)

Mr. Clooney’s delayed film “The Monuments Men,” a $70 million action drama from Sony and 20th Century Fox, was the weekend’s second-biggest movie. It took in $22.7 million, according to Rentrak, which compiles box-office data. The only other new wide-release film, “Vampire Academy” (Weinstein Company), fizzled with $4.1 million in ticket sales.

It is too early to pass hit-or-miss judgment on “The Monuments Men,” which is counting on older moviegoers — the kind who eventually powered “Captain Phillips” to $106.6 million in domestic ticket sales — to meander into theaters in the weeks ahead. “We expect the film to be around for a very long time,” said Rory Bruer, Sony’s president for worldwide distribution, calling the opening results “terrific.”

Still, weak reviews for this period film by Mr. Clooney make that an uncertain expectation.

“The Lego Movie,” which took in an additional $18 million in relatively limited overseas release, was powered by extremely positive reviews, a shortage of family options at multiplexes, a built-in fan base (from the play sets and related video games) and an expert marketing campaign by Warner’s Sue Kroll and Blair Rich that allowed the movie to sneak up on ticket buyers.

“Rather than reacting to the naysayers who popped up along the way, we stayed under the radar in guerrilla mode,” said Dan Lin, who produced “The Lego Movie” with Roy Lee. “Then, when the full marketing campaign finally did kick in, people were surprised at what they saw and wanted to be a part of it all the more.”

In the end, what struck some skeptics as weird — the movie mixes animated Legos with real plastic bricks, and the character movement is choppy — turned into a strength. Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, who directed the movie and collaborated on its witty screenplay, based their vision partly on the crude stop-motion shorts that Lego fans post online.

“We made a decision early on that we weren’t going to cheat by giving the characters bendy arms and legs,” Mr. Lin said. “We wanted to make it look authentic, like your Lego play set was truly coming to life.”

There was some fear last week that snowstorms in parts of the United States and the start of the Winter Olympics would keep families at home. But Hollywood snapped to attention on Thursday, when the online ticket seller Fandango reported that “The Lego Movie” was its second biggest animated preseller, behind only “Toy Story 3.” Analysts started hoping that “The Lego Movie” might take in about $50 million.

But then Saturday results started rolling in, and Warner started popping the Champagne. Deadline.com, an entertainment news blog, wrote of the sky-high total for Saturday, “That is not a typo.”

“The lesson is a simple one: It has to feel fresh,” said Bruce Berman, chief executive of Village Roadshow. “This animated movie felt different from typical animated fare.”