Cartoon Network's Powerpuff Girls and Nickelodeon's Hey, Arnold are
no Boy Genius.
While Nick's Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius raked in $80 million last
winter, feature films for the Girls and Arnold have yet to make a
similar splash.
Since its July 3 debut, Powerpuff Girls, Cartoon's first feature, has
grossed $10 million, while Hey, Arnold weighed in at $13 million after
three weeks.
Network executives said international play, home video and DVD will boost
their takes.
Another cable star, Animal Planet's Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin,
isn't a big-screen smash yet, either. After one week, The Crocodile Hunter:
Collision Course had taken in $9.5 million.
Cartoon and Nick both said they are in the movie business to stay.
Later this year, Nick releases a Wild Thornberrys film, and there's
talk of a SpongeBob SquarePants movie and a Rugrats-Wild Thornberrys
crossover.
New Line Cinema is also producing a live-action version of Cartoon hit Samurai Jack.
