The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water grabs the no. 1 spot from Clint Eastwood's masterpiece film hit 'American Sniper' at the box office this weekend.
Paramount Pictures The SpongeBob Movie debuts on the big screen from the Nickelodeon animated TV series and records a whopping $56 million in Northern America based on the rough figures released Sunday.
The SpongeBob movie shows the adventure of the yellow sponge and his friends as they travel to the sea's surface to take back a secret recipe stolen by a pirate portrayed by Antonio Banderas.
The animated movie breaks the industry forecasts for an opening of about $35 million.
"The reviews were really excellent, including from some serious, tough critics," said Megan Colligan, president of worldwide distribution for Paramount Pictures.
American Sniper finally moved down to no. 2 spot after topping the box office charts for three weeks. The war drama raked in another $24.2 million in its fourth week of release at US and Canadian movie houses as reported.from studio estimates.
American Sniper, however, that fell to the No. 2 spot this week is now heading towards becoming the second-highest grossing R-rated movie of all time after 'Passion of Christ'.
On the other hand, the new release Wachowski film, 'The Jupiter Ascending', claims the No. 3 spot at a yawning $19 million gross for a $175 million budget. Starring Channing Tatum and Mila Kunis, Warner Bros. pushed back the release of the movie from summer 2014 slate.
"There's no question, at its inception when the movie was greenlit, we had higher expectations than what the actual result is," said Jeff Goldstein, head of domestic distribution for Warner Bros.
"At the end of the day, the Wachowskis are fine filmmakers. This one didn't go quite as broadly as we all wanted, but they'll find a film that will."
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