The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge out of Water ended American Sniper's three week reign at the top of the box office this weekend, earning a surprisingly hefty $56 million, significantly more than the $32 million opening of the original SpongeBob movie back in 2004. I don't know what that's about, but apparently the fanbase is still there, as 50% of the audience was over the age of 18. I was never a fan, so I have no opinion or reaction to the SpongeBob success- it's just, whatever. Sniper fell to second place with $24 million, bringing the total to $282 million with a long way to go yet (it only fell 21% since last week).
The two new releases this week, Jupiter Ascending and The Seventh Son, were extremely expensive sci-fi extravaganzas that both belly-flopped on their opening debuts, with critics and audiences. The Wachowski's epic brought in just $19 million against a $170 million dollar budget, while The Seventh Son came in fourth with $7 million. Interestingly, both films co-star an Oscar frontrunner in Eddie Redmayne and Julianne Moore, who are both said to give disastrous performances, leading some to speculate whether that could affect their Oscar chances, but that's mostly an urban legend still spurred from the year Eddie Murphy lost for Dreamgirls, as Norbit was released during voting time (in truth, he was very likely going to lose anyway). Rounding out the top five was Paddington, bringing in another $5 million.
Top 5:
- The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge out of Water- $56 million
- American Sniper- $24.2 million
- Jupiter Ascending- $19 million
- The Seventh Son- $7.1 million
- Paddington- $5.4 million
Next week it's the big opening of Fifty Shades of Grey, a movie which seems destined to open huge (the atrocious books sold 100 million copies), but then just as likely to disappear in a week, depending on how bad it is. Still, it will probably crush everything in its path over the long President's Day weekend, which is corresponding with Valentine's Day this year (nice marketing, you gotta admit). Also coming out is the British action flick Kingsmen: The Secret Service, which may turn out a sleeper hit, especially if it gets decent reviews. See you then!
