SpongeBob SquarePants movie skips theaters for streaming premiere

The movie SpongeBob: Sponge on the Run has chosen to skip its August theatrical release to go directly to video on demand early next year, before appearing on CBS All Access, according to a Variety report on Monday. (Disclosure: CNET is owned by ViacomCBS).

the coronavirus The pandemic forced Paramount to delay the film’s July theatrical release until August 7, but it is now following the path of Trolls World Tour and Scoob! to skip theaters and debut instead on services like Amazon and iTunes.

It is unclear how long he will spend on those services before he heads to CBS All Access, which will host all seasons of the SpongeBob cartoons as well as part of the rebranding and expansion of the ViacomCBS subscription streaming platform.

The SpongeBob films are lucrative titles for Paramount: The first film in 2004 took $ 141 million globally, and the 2015 Sponge Out of Water increased that to $ 325 million.

There are a couple of clues as to why Paramount chose the digital route. The digital release of another family-oriented film, Trolls World Tour, in April grossed nearly $ 100 million in its first three weeks, reportedly earning more for Universal than the full national theatrical tour of the original Trolls. Scoob! He reportedly also did well when he went digital in May, beating rents on his first weekend.

Read: Tom Kenny, voice of SpongeBob, on how the crash affects the show

Unlike cartoons, The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run is computer animated with some live action, and according to its movie predecessors, it will feature some celebrity cameos (David Hasselhoff made waves in the first movie) .

As you can see in the trailer below, one of them is Keanu Reeves, playing a character named Sage: “I am made of wise and I am wise, so it works pretty well,” he says.