Warner Bros. is turning to popular game-show app HQ Trivia to promote “The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part” with a special event next week that will see regular host Scott Rogowsky appear as a live, animated Lego character, Variety has learned.
On Wednesday, Feb. 6, at 9 p.m. ET, HQ Trivia will broadcast live from Sydney, Australia — from the headquarters of Animal Logic, the animation and VFX house that has worked on all of WB’s “Lego” movies, according to a source familiar with the event. The plan is for Rogowsky to host that night’s HQ Trivia game as an animated Lego avatar. (A rep for HQ Trivia wouldn’t confirm details of the “Lego Movie 2” special game.)
The game will run two days before “The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part” is slated to open Feb. 8. HQ Trivia players will compete for a prize pool of $75,000 cash (split among all players who successfully answer all questions). In addition, a few players will win a rare, limited-edition set of “Lego Movie 2” collectible figures.
It’s the fifth movie release Warner Bros. has worked with HQ Trivia before. Last year the studio paid more than $3 million to promote three movies — “Ready Player One,” “Rampage” and “Oceans 8” — in the trivia game, followed by “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald” last November.
Overall, HQ Trivia claims it has generated over $10 million in ad revenue since it began selling sponsorships in the first quarter of 2018. Other advertisers have included NBC, Universal Pictures, Google, GM, Nike, Target, JPMorgan Chase, and MillerCoors.
Launched in August 2017, HQ Trivia has spawned numerous copycat competitors with the promise of letting users win real money. The company’s HQ Trivia games run weekdays at 3 p.m. and 9 p.m. ET and on the weekends at 9 p.m. ET. In the game’s regular format, players must correctly answer all 12 multiple-choice questions (with a 10-second time limit, to thwart cheating) that become increasingly difficult.