The most popular cartoon of all time dominates Netflix’s Top 10

According to Jonathan Klotz
| Published 1 second ago

For nearly 30 years, one cartoon has dominated pop culture in a way that few properties could hope to, and no, it hasn’t The Simpsons. Spongebob Squarepants debuted in 1999, and as it nears its 30th anniversary, the upbeat mushroom that lives in a pineapple under the sea shows no signs of slowing down. As evidence, The Spongebob Movie: Sponge Out of Water spent over a week in Netflix’s top 10, not even on the kids list, it’s up there with Guardians and Horizon: An American Saga in the overall top 10.

A film that defies explanation

Continued success Spongebob Squarepants may come as a surprise, but the children raised on the adventures of the Bikini Bottom crew are now old enough to have children of their own, who in turn represent the landmark series. And yes, how someone grew up Doug, Ren and Stimpyand Rugratsthat was a painful sentence to write. Even those who weren’t raised on the show were exposed to it, like The Simpsons. It has become a central part of modern internet culture, and there seems to be a spongebob meme for every occasion.

Most of the popular memes come from the early seasons of the show The Spongebob Movie: Sponge Out of Water was released in 2015 and sends Spongebob and friends on a journey through time, space and the strangest of all locations, dry land, to get the Krabby Patty recipe and save Bikini Bottom. It’s delightfully weird, featuring a novel performance Antonio Banderas as the pirate Burger Beard and any attempt to summarize parts like “Bikini Bottom turns into Mad Max” and “Sandy tries to sacrifice Spongebob to appease the Sandwich Gods” sounds crazy, which is why it was a return to the top Spongebob Squarepants.

Paramount’s most successful franchise

Any long-running series will have its ups and downs, but still The Simpsons Movie helped distract fans from the lackluster seasons that surrounded him, The Spongebob Movie: Sponge Out of Water he did the same. The difference is that Spongebob Squarepants has kept churning out movies and there will be more in the next few years, while The Simpsons may finally, mercifully, end.

It can be argued Spongebob Squarepants has become too much of a children’s show over the past decade and lost the satirical edge it had before the unfortunate death of creator Stephen Hillenburg, but what can’t be denied is that it’s Paramount’s most successful franchise.

Star Trek fans know very well that it’s one of the biggest franchises of all time, but it’s always struggled to be profitable, so it makes sense that the merchandising machine Spongebob Squarepants is one of the most valuable franchises in the world. The Spongebob Movie: Sponge Out of Water grossed over $325 million in theaters and on a budget of just $72 million was more profitable than Star Trek: Beyondfurther cementing its status as crown the jewel of the Paramount media empire. It’s easy to overlook today, but there’s no denying that the weird cartoon that turned plankton into a recurring villain (sort of) is one of the world’s most beloved shows.

Although The Simpsons surpassed in its lifespan as the longest-running animated series, Spongebob Squarepants it has more spin-offs, more movies, more merchandise, more theme park rides, more video games, and more memes. There are now two generations that can recognize Handsome Squidward, but may not know who Hank Scorpio is or why “Boo-urns” is one of the biggest punchlines in comedy history. Golden age The Simpsons can’t be touched but it ended earlier Spongebob aired its first episode.

The Spongebob Movie: Sponge Out of Water is the best of the show’s feature films to date, although it has been followed Mushroom on the run and in December of this year the fourth film, Searching for Squarepants, will in theaters. 13 seasons Spongebob Squarepants are available to stream on Paramount+, while The Spongebob Movie: Sponge Out of Water it’s also on Netflix.