‘SpongeBob Movie: Sponge On The Run’ Skips Theatres For 2021 Digital Release

Another one jumps into the home-release train. According to Variety, Paramount is taking The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge On The Run off of the theatrical calendar and will be sending it straight into homes in early 2021. It will launch on premium digital rental services before landing exclusively on CBS All Access.

SpongeBob Movie: Sponge On The Run sees Bikini Bottom’s iconic best friends Patrick and SpongeBob head to the lost city of Atlantis on a rescue mission to save SpongeBob’s pet snail, Gary. It is the third SpongeBob movie following 2004’s The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie and 2015’s The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water. The films earned $141 million and $325.1 million respectively worldwide.

Sponge On The Run was originally slated to premiere in theatres on May 22, but due to the Coronavirus pandemic, it was pushed back to August 7.

“I’m incredibly proud of this film, and the phenomenal cast and filmmaking team that made it happen,” said Mireille Soria, president of Paramount Animation. “Bringing this movie to life was a true collaboration and labor of love, and I’m thrilled for audiences to enjoy it as much as we enjoyed making it.”

“We are thrilled to have The Spongebob Movie: Sponge on the Run, a premier, first-run movie from one of ViacomCBS’ biggest brands, join CBS All Access’ expanding slate of franchise content from across ViacomCBS,” adds Marc DeBevoise, chief digital officer at ViacomCBS, and president and CEO of ViacomCBS Digital. “This launch will be perfectly timed with our continued expansion and planned rebranding of the service in early 2021, as we welcome SpongeBob and the gang from Bikini Bottom to the service in the biggest way possible.”

All prior seasons of SpongeBob Squarepants will also soon be available on CBS All Access as part of its expansion.

Aside from The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge On The Run, numerous films have also forgone the theatrical release in exchange for digital releases due to the pandemic. This includes Universal’s Trolls World Tour and The King of Staten Island, Warner Bros. animated adventure Scoob, and Disney’s Artemis Fowl. Paramount has also recently given up its romantic comedy The Lovebirds to Netflix.

Theatres are expected to resume business in July. Disney’s Mulan will be the first major release on July 24 followed by Christopher Nolan’s Tenet on July 31.