Movie real estate does not come cheap, even in Lego form

The Lego Movie, hitting theaters this week, is no doubt the result of an elaborate product placement or marketing deal. Still, Legos are very fun, and we can't help but be excited whenever we have a chance to play with them. As someone who has been to a Lego retail store and played with the Back to the Future set, I can personally attest that few things are more fun than combining movies with Lego.

We tip our hat to real estate blog Movoto for having some fun with this idea. Using a handy algorithm and the work of some enthusiastic fans, Movoto estimated how many Legos it would take to build famous movie homes, including everything from the Beetlejuice house to Superman's Fortress of Solitude. Surprisingly, some buildings such as the palace from Aladdin and Howl's titular moving castle would cost more when made from Lego. But for the most part, Lego is a much cheaper way to build than brick and metal: you'd save almost $100 million building Hogwarts that way.

For the record, it would take 286,756,745 Lego bricks to build the American University Library. That's $28,675,675 of Legos!