In Just 10 Days, Hoppers Outgrossed Pixar’s Biggest Box Office Bomb

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Pixar movies used to be almost guaranteed hits, but that’s become less true recently. While the studio has had some successes this decade, films like Lightyear and Elio weren’t as popular with audiences. Because of these mixed results, there was a lot of anticipation around their latest film, Hoppers. Thankfully, the funny sci-fi movie appears to be turning things around for Pixar, earning the biggest opening weekend of any original animated film since Coco in 2017. In just over a week, Hoppers has already made more money than Pixar’s biggest box office disappointment.

According to Deadline, Hoppers topped the box office for the second weekend in a row, bringing in an estimated $28.5 million in the US and Canada. Worldwide, the film has now earned $164.7 million, surpassing the total global earnings of Elio, which made $154.2 million. This puts Hoppers as the third-highest-grossing movie of 2026 globally, and the top-earning animated film of the year.

Hoppers‘ Success Kicks Off a Big 2026 for Pixar

While the new sci-fi movie Project Hail Mary is expected to be a big hit next weekend, Hoppers is still predicted to perform well. With a few weeks before The Super Mario Galaxy Movie comes out, Hoppers doesn’t have much competition for families. The film is getting good reviews and is likely to continue attracting audiences, especially families looking for something a little lighter than the PG-13 adventure of Project Hail Mary.

Pixar’s upcoming film, Hoppers, is looking promising, and if it does well, 2026 could be the first year Pixar has two films earn big at the box office. While Pixar doesn’t often release two films in one year, when it does, one usually thrives while the other doesn’t perform as well. For example, in 2015, Inside Out was a huge success, earning $859 million worldwide, but The Good Dinosaur lost money. The last time they released two films in a single year was 2017 with Coco ($823.2 million) and Cars 3 ($383.9 million), which was the lowest-grossing film in the Cars series. Toy Story 5 is coming out in just a few months and is expected to be a major summer hit, potentially even surpassing $1 billion, given the franchise’s history.

As a huge Pixar fan, I was so thrilled to see both Inside Out 2 and Hoppers do so well in theaters! It’s fantastic for Pixar’s future to have both original stories and sequels succeed. They’ve got a lot of both coming up, including a new film called Gatto next year. Everyone assumes Toy Story 5 will be a hit, and it probably will be, but Hoppers is the really exciting one to me. It proves people still want to go to the cinema for Pixar’s original ideas. During the pandemic, it felt like Pixar became mostly a Disney+ thing – we were all watching films like Soul, Luca, and Turning Red at home, which were great, but different. Hoppers feels like it might be the start of bringing us all back to the theaters for those amazing Pixar originals again.

While Hoppers probably won’t reach the same massive success as Pixar’s biggest films from its peak, that’s more about how movies are watched now compared to before COVID. It’s become tougher to get broad audiences into theaters for original movies, especially since new releases become available on streaming so quickly. Hoppers still needs to earn back its $150 million budget, but it’s on track to do so after a promising start. Considering Elio didn’t perform well last summer, Pixar is likely pleased with how Hoppers is doing so far.

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2026-03-15 19:40