Bikini Bottom Pictures

Bikini Bottom Pictures is an American motion picture and television production company founded on April 15, 2016 by SpongeBob SquarePants series creator Stephen Hillenburg. After the critical and financial success of The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water, series creator Stephen Hillenburg had the thought of opening a separate company, mainly in the same way as United Plankton Pictures.

The company's latest film is Sandy In Texas, released on August 11, 2022 by Paramount Pictures and co-produced by Paramount Animation, Nickelodeon Movies and Buddy Animation. The company is owned by ToonBox Entertainment and Paramount Global and is a subsidiary of Buddy Studios and Nickelodeon, with ToonBox and Buddy Studios owning the majority vote of 76.6%.

2015-2016; Founding
In 2015, following the critical and financial success of The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water, the creator of SpongeBob SquarePants, Stephen Hillenburg, had the thought of opening a secondary company. As he was CEO of United Plankton Pictures at the time, in January 2016, he had approached the deal with Paramount Pictures, who turned down the deal. The South Australian production company, Buddy Studios, had gotten word of the company, and had approached Hillenburg, who accepted the deal.

The company was founded on April 15, 2016 under the name "Bikini Bottom Pictures", reminiscent of the fictional underwater town in SpongeBob SquarePants. The company's first piece of media was a spinoff to the series, titled simply "A SpongeBob Spinoff: The Life of Squidward", which premiered on July 5, 2016 on Nickelodeon, produced by Nickelodeon Animation Studios and Paramount Television Animation by Paramount Media Networks. The show garnered a mixed response, with praise for its storylines, voice-acting and animation, though criticized its humor and overall feel, claiming it "doesn't feel like a SpongeBob spinoff", with many saying it's "a cheap cash grab". The show lasted 5 seasons, with the last episode airing on May 1, 2019.

2018-2020; First films, death of Stephen Hillenburg, additional spinoffs
The first film produced by Bikini Bottom Pictures was released on August 10, 2018, titled "The SpongeBob Movie 2½: The Other Half", directed by Paul Tibbitt and produced by Mark Osborne, based on a screenplay by Stephen Hillenburg and produced by Nickelodeon Movies and co-produced by United Plankton Pictures, and released theatrically by Paramount Pictures. It drew a mixed to positive response, with critics praising the animation, voice acting, musical score by Michael Giacchino and overall storyline, but criticized the plot, visual effects, and its connectivity to Sponge Out of Water. The film was unfortunately not financially successful, and grossed $122.5 million worldwide on its budget of $49 million. The film was also the last feature film to involve Stephen Hillenburg, prior to his unfortunate death on November 26, 2018.

After Hillenburg's death, as a tribute in memory of him, Nickelodeon and Bikini Bottom Pictures produced a short film, dedicating it to Hillenburg's works. The short film, titled "Thank You for Everything, Stephen", premiered on social media, avoiding television broadcasts. The short film garnered an emotionally positive response, giving praise for its wholesome tribute to Hillenburg, animation, and voice acting.

Bikini Bottom Pictures was to produce The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge On the Run, but was kicked from the production due to problems. The company, however, continued producing other spinoffs of SpongeBob, including the newly-released Sandy's Texas Rodeo, centering around one of the main characters, Sandy Cheeks, voiced by Carolyn Lawrence. Unlike the main series, where it was animated by Rough Draft Korea, Texas Rodeo was animated with CGI, with Nitrogen Studios Canada Inc. (later Cinesite Vancouver) providing animation services. The series aired on August 19, 2020, and received positive reviews, praising it for being relating the source material, keeping the theme of SpongeBob, voice acting, CGI animation and storylines for each episode, although some critics disliked the idea of using CGI animation, rather than 2D animation. However, fans criticized the series, saying that "Nickelodeon is milking SpongeBob for money".