Paramount’s “The Spongebob Movie: Sponge Out of Water” is dominating the U.S. box office, hitting $15.2 million Friday as it heads for an impressive $52 million opening weekend at 3,641 U.S. locations.

That’s nearly triple the take for Warner Bros.’ expensive  “Jupiter Ascending,” which opened with $6.4 million Friday and will finish its first weekend at around $18 million from 3,181 theaters, according to Saturday estimates. Legendary’s action fantasy “Seventh Son” also opened weakly with $2.3 million Friday for a mild $6.5 million weekend for Universal.

Warner Bros.’ “American Sniper,” now in its fourth weekend of wide release, will finish the frame ahead of “Jupiter Ascending” with about $23 million following a $6.3 million Friday. Clint Eastwood’s Iraq war drama, which was released on Christmas, has now topped $264 million domestically — surpassing “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” as the third-highest 2014 grosser in the U.S., behind only “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1″ and “Guardians of the Galaxy.”

“Jupiter Ascending,” co-financed by Village Roadshow and directed by Lana and Andy Wachowski, was originally slotted for a launch last summer but was delayed in order to complete the extensive special effects — a major part of the $175 million pricetag. Mila Kunis and Channing Tatum star in a complex saga of space travel and genetic engineering.

The soft launch for “Jupiter” did not surprise as forecasts earlier this week predicted an opening in the low $20 millions. By contrast, the “SpongeBob” results came in far above recent projections, which had pegged the family comedy for a $35 million launch.

Instead, “SpongeBob” will finish only 25% behind the impressive $69 million launch of Warner’s “The Lego Movie,” which opened on the same weekend last year.

“Seventh Son,” starring Jeff Bridges, is performing respectably overseas with $82 million internationally, including $26 million in China — where China Film Group has invested in the film.

Good for the Spongebob movie, been a fan of show for years, I haven't seen it yet but I plan to, however I know it will not be as good as the original one

Spongebob can hopefully rest in peace now since its doing pretty well critically and economically

I personally thought it was much better, despite the fact that I loved the 2004 movie back when I was a kid. I dunno, I saw it without any hopes just because I wanted to keep entertained my little cousin, I stopped watching Spongebob episodes because I thought the recent ones were really bad; but it turned out to be quite fun, just for the watch. Oh, and the original Latin American Spanish voice actors were back, I loved that detail as heck. 

just so you know the original writers for season 1- the movie wrote the new movie's script so maybe that is why its good

I'm pretty sure the original creators are coming back for new seasons of the show after the movie.

They better make spongebob great again

and wait

I thought this was suppose to end the sponge?

Nope. That might've been a marketing gimmick, but the show was renewed for a tenth season with Hillenburg co-producing alongside Tibbitt, the current executive producer. 

Hopefully the show starts to pick up because of this. I stopped watching forever ago because it became actual shit. The writing got so bad, lmao.

When I saw the trailer I never thought it was going to be economically successful and well-received by the reviewers.

Nicely done, Spongebob