Spongebob Squarepants: Equestria Girls

A new My Little Pony: Equestria Girls and Spongebob Squarepants crossover film will be released in theaters in late 2020. It will be the third SpongeBob SquarePants film and the fouth installment of the Equestria Girls film series after the 2004 The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, 2013 My Little Pony: Equestria Girls, 2014 My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Rainbow Rocks, 2015 The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water and 2015 My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Friendship Games.

Production
After the release of The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water in 2015, Hasbro Studios acquired rights to Nickelodeon Movies and Paramount Pictures to make a Spongebob SquarePants and My Little Pony: Equestria Girls crossover film. at this time, the third Equestria Girls film titled My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Friendship Games and the animated feature film based directly on My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic TV series were still in production. In a 2015 interview with Digital Spy, SpongeBob SquarePants writer and executive producer Paul Tibbitt was asked about the possibility of a crossover. He said, "I think that they are talking about doing that, but I haven't signed up for anything. We just feel like we've told so many stories, and SpongeBob and Twilight Sparkle exists so well in this short 20-minute form." He further stated that making another film is "a huge challenge." However, Tibbitt denied the a crossover is not impossible to emerge, saying "I wouldn't say no, but I don't know if there will be yet another one." In March 1, 2016, Hasbro Studios and Nickelodeon reportedly had been approaching the crews of the Spongebob SquarePants, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and the previous installments of the Equestria Girls film series to make the crossover film. The network had long wanted to partner with Paramount Pictures and Hasbro Studios to release yet another SpongeBob SquarePants film with a crossover with My Little Pony: Equestria Girls to help reinvigorate the series from its declining ratings. However, internal disagreement delayed collaborations.

On March 31, 2016, in an article by the Los Angeles Times, it was first reported that Hasbro Studios and Paramount had "yet another SpongeBob picture with a crossover with My Little Pony: Equestria Girls" in development. six months later, Philippe Dauman, the president and CEO of Paramount and Nickelodeon's parent company Viacom, and Jayson Thiessen, the director of the most Friendship is Magic episodes and the Equestria Girls film series officially announced on September 28, 2016 that a crossover film was in development and slated for an unspecified 2020 release, Dauman and Thiessen both saying that "We will be releasing a SpongeBob SquarePants and My Little Pony: Equestria Girls crossover film at the end of 2020." Dauman added that the film "will serve to start off or be one of our films that starts off our new animation effort." Nickelodeon expected the film to do much better in foreign box office than the 2004 Spongebob feature, 2015 Spongebob feature and the previous installments of the Equestria Girls film series, given its increasingly global reach. Dauman and Thiessen both said, "This will continue to propel SpongeBob and Twilight Sparkle internationally."