‘Spongebob Movie’ Debuts On Netflix Tomorrow — Except In The U.S. And Canada

Most of the world will get to see The Spongebob Movie: Sponge on the Run before the United States. Paramount Animation’s film will hit Netflix tomorrow, November 5, continuing its highly unorthodox rollout.

The streamer will release Sponge on the Run everywhere besides the U.S. and Canada. (Canadians already had a chance to see the film when it opened theatrically last August.) Americans will have to wait until next year, when the film will come out on premium VOD. It will then move exclusively to CBS All Access, Paramount’s sister subscription VOD service, which is due to be rebranded as Paramount+ amid a programming overhaul.

Sponge on the Run is the third feature in the beloved franchise, and the first to feature fully cg versions of Stephen Hillenburg’s characters. At the start of this year, it was scheduled to come out in the U.S. on May 22. After the pandemic hit, the film hopscotched around the theatrical release calendar before being moved to streaming.

The Netflix and CBS All Access deals have reportedly covered the budget for Sponge on the Run, which is unknown but estimated to be in the $60 million range. Paramount can’t be too displeased with the outcome.

The film’s director Tim Hill, on the other hand, can’t hide his disappointment. As he told Looper: “It’s terrible. I was hoping for a big fanfare and a great premiere and seeing all the people I worked with, and doing a cast and crew screening, being able to at least thank people, which never happened. It was just what we’re doing now, like, ‘Bye. Movie’s over.’ It didn’t feel natural, for sure.”

For those who can see it tomorrow, the film looks like it will be a delight for fans of fun — and funny — animation. Below, Jacques Daigle, animation supervisor at Mikros Animation, which produced the film’s animation in Montreal, Canada, talks about what made the production of the film such a fun experience: