Clint Eastwood's American Sniper has been a true blue monster at the box office. Since getting a wide release a few weeks ago, the movie has been setting box office records left and right, and it has managed to keep the top spot domestically for three straight weekends. Unfortunately for the film, if new prognostications are correct then American Sniper's reign as #1 will soon be over. Why? Because The Spongebob Movie: Sponge Out Of Water is hitting theaters and is expected to steal away all of the conversation.
The analysts over at The Wrap have taken a close hard look at the new wide releases coming out this week, and have determined that it will be the new Nickelodeon cartoon film that knocks American Sniper off its pedestal. It is being predicted that the new Spongebob Squarepants movie will be able to pull in $35 million this Friday, which means that it should be able to beat Clint Eastwood's film quite handily (considering the war movie only pulled in $31.8 million to win Super Bowl weekend). Obviously the kids movie is also expected to outpace the other two new releases - Andy and Lana Wachowski's Jupiter Ascending and Sergey Bodrov's Seventh Son - though it's unclear how those to projects are expected to do against the Bradley Cooper-led project.
What American Sniper has been able to achieve thus far at the box office is nothing short of spectacular - and it's really only made more amazing by the fact that almost all of the success was found in January (classically one of the worst release months of the year). To date the film has made $248 million domestically, and while it currently sits at #6 on the list of Top 10 movies of 2014 in the U.S., it's actually expected that the movie will surpass titles like Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 to become the highest grossing domestic hit of the year.
But why will it be The Spongebob Movie: Sponge Out Of Water what winds up taking American Sniper's place at the top of the box office? Not only does the feature have a good deal of franchise history behind it, but it also has the same advantage that all family films have, in that kids going to see the film will be dragging along their parents, ensuring extra ticket sales. Whether or not it will be able to stand up against the likes of Fifty Shades of Grey or Kingsman: The Secret Service in its second week is another question entirely, but also one that will have a much clearer answer in about seven days.
Will you be going to support American Sniper with your hard earned dollar this weekend or taking in a screening of he Spongebob Movie: Sponge Out Of Water? Or will you be choosing something else entirely?
