Cleaning Up

The fact that Nickelodeon's long-time meal ticket has most of the family trade to itself could bode well.

BOX OFFICE: SPONGEBOB MOPS FLOOR WITH JUPITER ASCENDING

... Paramount’s “The Spongebob Movie: Sponge Out of Water” is pegged for a $35 million opening at over 3,600 locations. ... [The feature] opened internationally last weekend with $8 million in five markets and will expand to Brazil and Spain this weekend. ...

Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst with Rentrak, predicted that the “SpongeBob” sequel will be able to attract families amid a market that’s seen only one significant entry aimed at children — the Weinstein Co.’s “Paddington,” which has topped $50 million in less than three weeks. “It’s been pretty slim offerings for families, and ‘Paddington’ has performed well, so the ‘SpongeBob’ movie should get a lot of support,” ...

SB is a known quantity with plenty of long-term exposure. It's opened well overseas, so there's no reason to believe it won't open convincingly in the U.S. of A.

As with Paddington, The SpongeBob Movie has kept a lid on overall costs and is cruising in Illumination Entertainment's territory: the $70-$80 million sweet spot -- where the budget is low enough that the strike zone for monetary success is big. (When the budget is twice that, the odds for making a bundle go way down.)

It will be interesting to see if the experts are anywhere near right and The Spongbob Movie opens large at #1. If it does, we'll be looking at a SpongeBob 3 sooner rather than later. Franchise, baby! And they're not gonna make them 11 years apart!