YouTube and Warner Bros. Pictures had teaming up for a one day promotional event that will let users watch The Lego Movie in its entirety during Black Friday. The promotion is to stir up hype for the film’s sequel, The Lego Movie 2 . YouTube viewers will only have 24 hours to watch the movie for free, and can do so by clicking on a trailer for The Lego Movie 2 and clicking on an option to watch The Lego Movie. Since the movie is itself the advertisement, it will play without commercial breaks.
Although this is the first time an entire movie will officially play as an ad, YouTube and various studios have started using the platform to offer some free titles to viewers. YouTube has nearly 1.8 billion logged in monthly users watching more than 450 hours of video each minute. Offering free movies, especially to drum up interest in a major sequel, isn’t a bad way to garner some positive attention.
The Lego Movie will no longer be available to watch for free as of 12AM PT on November 24th. The Lego Movie 2 hits theaters on February 8th, 2019.
