SpongeBob unseats Sniper at weekend box office
The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out Of Water finally unseated Clint Eastwood’s runaway hit American Sniper at the weekend box office, while a pair of high-priced fantasies flopped.
Paramount Pictures’ SpongeBob Movie earned US$56 million (1.8 billion baht) in North America, a huge debut for the animated Nickelodeon big-screen transfer, according to estimates Sunday. That finally pushed American Sniper off the top spot after a threeweek reign. The Navy SEAL drama took in $24.2 million in its fourth week of wide release.
The Wachowskis’ lavish science-fiction adventure Jupiter Ascending opened with just $19 million, a meagre amount for a $175 million production. Warner Bros. delayed the release of the movie, starring Channing Tatum and Mila Kunis, from last summer.
Universal’s Seventh Son, a supernatural thriller set in medieval times, debuted with a scant $7.1 million. The film, produced by Legendary Pictures and starring Jeff Bridges, cost nearly $100 million to make. That gave the box office a couple of lucrative hits and a pair of costly misses to lead the early February weekend. The success of The SpongeBob Movie, the second SpongeBob film following 2004’s The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, proved the continuing appeal of the 16-year-old Nickelodeon character.
The colourful, beach-set cartoon about the relentlessly chipper SpongeBob also capitalised on a marketplace hungry for family films in the midst of winter, well after the swath of holiday releases. On the same weekend last year, Warner Bros.’ The Lego Movie emerged as one of 2014’s biggest hits.
Jupiter Ascending, which underwent reshoots, edits and a postponed release, continues a negative trend for the sibling directors, Lana and Andy Wachowski. The film marks their third flop since their hugely popular Matrix trilogy, following 2012’s Cloud Atlas and 2008’s Speed Racer.
Warner Bros. could take solace in the tremendous success of the Oscar-nominated American Sniper, which will cross $300 million by next weekend. Whereas Sniper paid off many times over, Jupiter Ascending will be costly.