Pixar Is Back: Hoppers Hops to a $40M Opening Weekend — The Best Pixar Original Since Coco

Pixar needed this one. After a string of original films that struggled to find audiences — Onward was swallowed by a pandemic, Elemental opened to the worst weekend in Pixar history before finding its legs, Elio crashed to just $20.8M last summer — the Emeryville animation studio arrives this weekend with Hoppers and a collective sigh of relief. The film opened to an estimated $40M domestic debut at 4,000 theaters on Friday March 6 — the best opening weekend for a Pixar original since Coco in 2017. Globally it has launched to approximately $88M across 41 markets. And it has done it with a 97% certified fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes — matching Coco and The Incredibles in the upper echelon of Pixar's critical all-time leaderboard. Pixar is back. And it got there by putting a girl's brain inside a robot beaver. The Premise: Absolutely Unhinged, Completely Wonderful Hoppers introduces Mabel — a 19-year-old animal lover voiced by Piper Curda — who seizes an opportunity to use experimental "hopping" technology that transfers human consciousness into lifelike robotic animals, allowing direct communication with wildlife. What follows is a relentlessly inventive, frequently hilarious, and genuinely moving 1 hour 45 minute adventure that takes its absurd premise entirely seriously while milking it for every possible joke, emotional beat, and environmental message it can generate. Director Daniel Chong — creator of Cartoon Network's We Bare Bears — brings the sensibility of a filmmaker who loves animals, loves comedy, and loves Pixar's tradition of embedding real emotional weight inside preposterously high-concept stories. The result feels simultaneously brand new and completely at home in Pixar's canon. What the Critics Are Saying: 97% — Matching Coco and The Incredibles The critical reception has been extraordinary. Hoppers currently sits at 97% certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes from 90 reviews — a score that puts it alongside Coco and The Incredibles in Pixar's all-time critical tier. Reviewers have praised the film's comedy — described consistently as the funniest Pixar film in years, with a running emoji joke that has generated particular attention — its stunning animation, its environmental message delivered with surprising subtlety for a family film, and its emotional core. One line of critical consensus has emerged most clearly: "Pixar is back, baby." Audience scores are tracking comparably to the critical reception — reflecting the kind of word-of-mouth that should give Hoppers genuine legs through March before The Super Mario Galaxy Movie arrives at Easter. The film is not without its critics. A vocal minority have pointed to a somewhat aimless second act, a handful of jokes that miss hard, and an environmental message that occasionally tips into heavy-handedness reminiscent of WALL-E's less subtle moments. One IMDB reviewer memorably called it "a ripoff of an Illumination film, done poorly" — a minority view that has been comprehensively drowned out by the film's enthusiastic majority reception. The Box Office Story: Pixar's Best Original Launch in Nine Years The numbers tell the real story of Hoppers' significance. Thursday night previews earned $2M. Early Saturday screenings added another $1.2M. Friday's full day came in at an estimated $12.7M — higher than the Friday openings of Onward ($12M), Elemental ($11.7M), and Elio ($8.96M). The $40M weekend projection — which some trackers have pushed as high as $50M — represents a watershed moment for Pixar's original IP strategy. It is the first time since Coco that the studio has convinced general audiences, not just franchise loyalists, to turn up en masse for a brand new story with brand new characters. The $150M production budget — lean by Disney standards, where animated features routinely cost $200M+ — means Hoppers needs a solid run to break even, but with no family competition until Super Mario Galaxy Movie at Easter, three clear weeks of runway lie ahead. Spring break is just beginning to roll — with 38% of K-12 schools on break by March 20 — giving Hoppers ideal conditions to leg out significantly beyond its opening frame. The Weekend's Other Big Story: The Bride! Struggles at $8-10M The weekend's other major release told a very different story. Maggie Gyllenhaal's The Bride! — the feminist punk-rock Frankenstein reimagining starring Jessie Buckley and Christian Bale that we covered in detail here on digital8hub.com — opened to a disappointing estimated $8-10M domestic debut against a reported $100M+ production budget. Warner Bros.' remarkable streak of nine consecutive No. 1 openings came to an end on Friday night. The film's R rating, challenging subject matter, and difficult marketing proposition — how do you sell a feminist Frankenstein movie to a mass audience? — combined to limit its commercial reach despite strong critical notices. It is a commercial miss, but likely not a final verdict on the film's long-term cultural resonance. Elsewhere in the top five, Scream 7 held reasonably well in its second weekend — down approximately 60% for around $25M — crossing $100M domestic in the process. Sony's GOAT continued its impressive run past $84M domestic. Wuthering Heights approaches $80M domestic. What It Means for Pixar — And for Animation Hoppers' success matters beyond the box office. It signals that original animation can still work theatrically — that audiences will show up for new characters and new worlds if the quality is there. After Inside Out 2 ($652M domestic) proved sequels could reach stratospheric heights, Hoppers suggests original Pixar can still find a genuine audience when the film is good enough. Toy Story 5 arrives this summer. Gatto and Hexed are in development. Pixar's creative pipeline has never looked more interesting — and Hoppers has given it the commercial foundation it desperately needed. Hop to it. For the latest entertainment and box office coverage, follow digital8hub.com.