Three new SpongeBob SquarePants spin-off movies are officially coming to Paramount Plus, along with the debut of a theatrical release starring everyone’s favorite Bikini Bottom resident.
The first SpongeBob SquarePants movie was released back in 2004 and grossed a whopping $471 million worldwide. However, it was 2015’s The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water, that proved to be the highest-grossing film in the franchise to date. The movie brought in over $325 million at the box office. The sequel ended up inspiring a Canadian theatrical release for The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run in 2020, which surpassed and smashed all the pandemic-era records at the time by earning $4.8 million.
Chief content officer of Movies and Kids & Family for Paramount Plus, Brian Robbins, confirmed during the Viacom CBS Investor Event that all three SpongeBob SquarePants projects are officially in the works currently at Nickelodeon Studios. In an official tweet from Paramount, the new SpongeBob films were described as “character-driven.” Each of the three SpongeBob SquarePants spinoff movies is set to focus in on and highlight a specific character from the series.
It would be hard to discount that the main reason for the growth of the SpongeBob SquarePants franchise has something to do with the popularity and success of the recent spin off series’ - Kamp Koral on Paramount Plus and The Patrick Star Show on Nickelodeon. Still, Robbins gives all credit to the fanbase. He claims it is the fans’ unwavering allegiance and support for the characters and the fictional world they inhabit that has kept this franchise alive and continuing to flourish. Robbins stated, “As we’ve known with Nickelodeon’s long-standing success, the kids and family audience is incredibly loyal. We see that on Paramount Plus as well, with kids and family ranking as one of the strongest genres on the service in terms of both engagement and subscriber acquisition. So as they stay for our shows and look for even more of them, we’re doubling down on giving them what they want by expanding the universes of the characters they love the best.”
Perhaps this is why Nickelodeon has decided to follow in Canada’s footsteps and also try its hand at its own rendition of a theatrical release of the creature who lives in a Pineapple under the sea. Throughout the original series, SpongeBob SquarePants has had several epic musical numbers, most notably the “Bubble Bowl” halftime show performance. In this way, the departure to a theatrical adaptation seems quite natural and not as much as a forced creative jump.
The very first release of Paramount Plus’ SpongeBob SquarePants spinoff films is expected to drop sometime in 2023.
Source: Paramount Plus
