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‘SpongeBob’ defeats ‘Jupiter Ascending’ at box office

By Charles Rahrig V

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‘The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water’ defeated industry expectations on its way to No. 1

After being released 10 years after the first SpongeBob movie, the sequel has captured early success at the North American Box Office, taking down American Sniper from the top spot, and crushing the new science fiction film, Jupiter Ascending.

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In fact, the newest film starring everyone’s favorite underwater characters is outperforming its predecessor taking in $56 million this weekend domestically compared to the $32 million the first film made on opening weekend in 2004.

There’s a lot of interesting things being told by the numbers from this weekend’s box office.

First and foremost, Jupiter Ascending is on the fast track to becoming a flop with just $19 million brought in domestically on a budget of $150 million. The foreign market is going to have to do quite the task of saving the film financially. Jupiter Ascending, however was number one overseas this past weekend.

Another big takeaway is that for the second year in a row, an animated feature has ruled the February market for films. Last year, The Lego Movie, became an instant classic with its fantastic animation and took the February box office by storm when it brought in close to $70 million on opening weekend.

Could it be that after January, and all the releases of deep thought provoking Academy Award worthy films, that people want something light and entertaining to enjoy before the spring and summer releases rattle their brains with the major motion picture releases?

It appears that was the case with The Lego Movie, and now the fact that SpongeBob is controlling February could be a strong argument towards that point. It’s a good sign for future animated movies, and it wouldn’t be surprising at all after two years of February success to start seeing the month become a haven for animated features.

The flop of Jupiter Ascending could also be telling for future big budget movies to hold back films for release in a different month. That’s not to say all big budget films would fail in February, but the month has long been a lull in box office performance.

Regardless, the big story is that SpongeBob has ruled the box office and that after 1o years without a film, people still have a keen interest in the fun-loving sponge. It’s not often that television shows translate successfully into films, but SpongeBob has now done it twice.

It will be interesting to see if any other film will knock the film from the top spot for the rest of this month before heading into March, where some bigger releases like the latest release from Disney, Cinderella, will hit theaters.

For now, SpongeBob is the top dog in the yard.

[H/T: HollywoodReporter]

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