The wait is over!! Paramount Home Entertainment announced this past week that the much-anticipated DVD and Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack debut of writer/director Tim Hill’s The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run will take place on July 13.
The film was delayed twice in its theatrical opening in 2019, then came the Covid-19 “theatrical recess” and a series of theatrical dates that were set, re-set, re-set and re-set again. For SpongeBob fans it was maddening. After all, the 2015 theatrical release of The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water pulled in $163 million in its domestic run, so the fans were there … they just couldn’t get at it.
Finally, Aug. 14 arrived last year and Paramount found 300 screens that were open and ready to host The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run. Based on the per-screen average for the week in those 300 theatres (with limited seating access), if the film would have had its normal allotment of screen venues it would have opened to over $20 million in box office receipts.
The film ran in theatres through mid-November, with 55 theatres showing it every day for three solid months. Finally, Paramount just gave up on trying to make a go of it theatrically and pulled the film back for the re-branded launch of the Paramount+ streaming service … plus other streaming platforms around the world. Netflix also go involved … industry trade reports that strategy paid off as the studio was able to re-coup its substantial investment in the film.
The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run is the animated blockbuster that never was. For the record, the film pulled in $4.8 million in its very, very, very limited theatrical run and that mid-July street date yields an ARR of 333 days.
As for the DVD and Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack launch on July 13, The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run comes loaded with fun-filled bonus goodies. First off, there’s the new “mini-movie” titled I’m Urchin You to Leave.
Next, there are four sections that fans can access, which are variously titled “Campfire Songs” (featuring four music videos), “Campfire Stories” (showcasing two deleted storyboard sequences), “Camp Coral Buddies” and an arts-and-crafts section titled “Camp Arts and Crafts.” Lastly, the featurette titled “The Wonders of the Patty Mobile” wraps up the fun.
In other release news from Paramount Home Entertainment this week, June 29 will be the DVD debut of director Clark Johnson’s Percy vs. Goliath.
Christopher Walken (Oscar-winner for Best Supporting Actor in The Deer Hunter and later nominated in the same category for Catch Me If You Can) stars as real-life Canadian farmer Percy Schmeiser, who became something of an international celebrity and environment proponent when he began a years-long legal battle with Monsanto over genetic plant manipulation.
In real-life, Monsanto’s actions proved to be so egregious — bordering on the absurd — that eventually Schmeiser won a nine-to-nothing Canadian Supreme Court ruling. Essentially, they made the corporate decision that since they were large, and he was just a farmer, they’d crush him … director Clark Johnson’s Percy vs. Goliath is that story.
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