1. The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water- $56M
The $56M success of The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water is only surprising to those who haven't paid attention to the character's enduring popularity. Debuting in 1999 to become a Nickelodeon staple (and a subversive guilty pleasure for adults), SpongeBob's second feature film has surpassed the $32M debut of the 2004 movie by a healthy margin. This is one of those occasions when adults who loved the character as kids are now old enough to bring their own children, and it would be surprising if Paramount waits as long for another sequel.
2. American Sniper- $24.1M/$282.2M
3. Jupiter Ascending- $19M
Uh, so how many flops is it going to take before Hollywood writes off The Wachowskis completely? No, really, how many? The massive $175M Jupiter Ascending scraped together $19M in its opening weekend which...hey, that's twice as good as the lousy Cloud Atlas debut from 2012, so there's that. The film has been bumped around the schedule with Warner Bros. saying it was due to post-production work that needed to be done, and that excuse makes some degree of sense. But there's no hiding behind the fact that it was dumped into February with, seemingly, little competition to plow through and audiences still didn't care. Not only is it a knock against the Wachowskis and evidence that fans don't care if they made The Matrix a lifetime ago, but it also hurts stars Channing Tatum, Mila Kunis, and current Oscar-nominee Eddie Redmayne. Here's hoping Redmayne doesn't suffer from the deadly "Norbit Effect" and have Oscar voters turn on him because of this.
4. Seventh Son- $7.1M
Uh, and speaking of Oscar nominees who might be suffering some kind of awards backlash. Julianne Moore, currently the favorite to win Best Actress for Still Alice, is probably hoping voters forget she's the lead baddie in Seventh Son. This YA swords 'n wizards flick has been in the works forever, has an awesome cast with Moore, Jeff Bridges, Alicia Vikander, and Djimon Hounsou, but its time passed years ago and was never able to conjure up any audience enthusiasm.
5. Paddington- $5.36M/$57.2M
6. Project Almanac- $5.33M/$15.7M
7. The Imitation Game- $4.88M/$74.7M
8. The Wedding Ringer- $4.8M/$55.1M
9. Black or White- $4.5M/$13.1M
10. The Boy Next Door- $4.1M/$30.8M
