How Much Money Each SpongeBob Movie Really Made At The Box Office

"Looks like Nick is running out ideas. The show is doomed!" That's a real user comment made on Google's now-defunct Usenet in 1999 in regards to a brand-new show called "SpongeBob SquarePants," which had just made its debut on Nickelodeon. It wasn't the only negative reaction either, with others agreeing that the show wasn't great and foretelling both its and Nickelodeon's demise. Of course, these predictions proved to be incorrect. Not only did "SpongeBob SquarePants" go on to surpass "Arthur" in 2025 as the longest running animated kids show ever, but its fourth feature film debuted in December 2025.

Movie theaters have struggled to fill seats in recent years, but that hasn't stopped Hollywood expecting to profit big-time with new additions to its biggest franchises. The ongoing popularity of SpongeBob means expectations are high for the newest movie, which has already raked in $16 million in its opening weekend. But will it meet or surpass the franchise's biggest cinematic hits? The other three films — "The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie," "The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water," and "The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run" made between $4.8 million and $325 million at the box office. Only time will tell how well, but it's worth taking a closer look at what each SpongeBob film made and what may be in store for the latest film.

SpongeBob creator Stephen Hillenburg finally agreed to do a film adaptation of his hit show in 2002, after spending a year resisting studio pressures to do so. Legend has it that the film was intended to be the show's conclusion, but its massive success spurred Nickelodeon to continue the series and Paramount to ink future film deals. But aside from some speculative articles, numerous fan posts, and an unsourced sentence sharing this information on Wikipedia, this has not actually been confirmed. What can be confirmed, however, is that the movie — released in 2004 — was a huge hit.

According to Box Office Mojo, "The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie" quickly brought it over $32 million its opening weekend and went on to gross over $140 million worldwide. It was also the second-highest ranking movie for the first three days of its run and remained in the top 10 throughout its first month. And, adjusted for inflation, the movie's gross is even more impressive — $140 million would be over $240 million in 2025. Even when not adjusted, the film's earnings were well over four times the film's budget of $30 million, solidifying it as a success and paving the way for future movies featuring the titular anthropomorphic sea sponge and his sea-dwelling pals.

Despite the success of the first movie, it would be over a decade until the next SpongeBob flick hit theaters. But the long wait didn't seem to deter fans at all. Armed from the get-go with a bigger budget ($74 million compared to the first movie's $30 million, or double the budget when adjusted for inflation) the second film turned out to be an even bigger hit than its predecessor. Box Office Mojo numbers show it netted a stunning $325,186,032 globally after its 2015 release, with over $162 million in domestic theater tickets alone. Adjusted for inflation, the worldwide total would be $444,693,617 in 2025. The film also beat the SpongeBob franchise's previous benchmark for rankings, spending its opening weekend in the number one slot and remaining in the top 10 for over a month.

Box office aside, it's worth noting that "Sponge Out of Water" enjoyed further financial success in the home media market. DVDs and Blu-rays were still prevalent in the mid-2010s, and data from The Numbers shows that the second SpongeBob movie brought in an additional $24,794,650 from domestic home media sales alone. If you happen to have this one on DVD, you might want to check its value — it may not be one of the old DVDs worth the most money in modern times, but the franchise's continued popularity could make it worthwhile to collectors.

Thanks to the massive success of the two films preceding it, box office expectations were high for the third SpongeBob cinematic installment, released in August 2020. But the third SpongeBob theatrical release faced unprecedented challenges thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, which shuttered movie theaters and other public-reliant businesses that year. This resulted in considerably lower box office numbers than the first two SpongeBob movies — as Box Office Mojo data shows, "Sponge on the Run" made it into just 326 theaters globally for its whole run and grossed a total of $4,810,790. Adjusted for inflation, that would be $6,024,794 in 2025.

And, while this may come as no surprise to most, home media sales didn't help much either. With streaming in full force by 2020, sales of DVDs and Blu-rays had dropped considerably. "Sponge on the Run" brought in just under $3 million in these sales.

The newest film in the SpongeBob empire hit theaters on December 19, 2025 — 26 years after the world was first introduced to SpongeBob and the other characters of Bikini Bottom. It'll be a while until its total box office gross becomes apparent, but expectations are high given the overall performance of the franchise's previous movies. According to Variety, "The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants" cost $64 million to make. Using the common assessment that movies need to make 2.5 to 3 times their production budget to be considered profitable, this means the new SpongeBob movie will need to gross roughly between $150 million and $190 million to not be seen as a flop. However, this release also faces competition from viewing platforms that did not exist for its high-performing predecessors in 2015 and earlier. The average wait time between a new movie's theatrical release and its availability on streaming has shortened considerably in recent years, which could mean reduced box office profits.

It's also unclear exactly how much the voice actors made for the film. While their earnings likely pale in comparison to some of the biggest paydays for movie actors, the SpongeBob franchise's massive success to date suggests it could still be a nice paycheck for any set to share in a portion of the film's gross.

Though not part of the main series of films, there are two SpongeBob Netflix spinoff movies that also netted the franchise (and, of course, Netflix) respectable profits of their own. The first, "Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie," debuted on the streaming platform in August 2024 and became the most-watched title of the week with 12.8 million views. Alongside Netflix, it earned $4 million from limited release in international theaters. The second spinoff movie, "Plankton: The Movie," debuted in March 2025 and also became the most-watched title with 14.3 million views its first week. It also earned over $1.5 million during a limited international theatrical run.

As Netflix is not a pay-per-view platform, there are no hard numbers showing how much revenue the two films have brought in on Netflix itself. However, they are the result of a $200 million deal between Netflix and Nickelodeon. Likewise, every title that is among the platform's most watched is considered a success just by bringing in viewers and potential new subscribers. 

Will there be more SpongeBob Netflix movies in the future? It depends. The franchise still belongs to Nickelodeon, which in turn is now owned by Paramount. However, that could always change. With Netflix's possible acquisition of Warner Bros. (announced in December 2025), the media empire continues to grow and is set up to acquire additional properties in the future. As long as "SpongeBob SquarePants" remains successful, it could well be a future target.