Talking animals are still the rage and have no intentions of calming down at the weekend box office as Pixar’s Hoppers is bound to give the Emeryville, CA animation studio a lift as far as its original fare goes with $88M around the globe in 41 markets.
That’s not only the best start for a Pixar original movie since 2017’s Coco ($104.7M WW in like-for-likes), but Hoppers is also the best reviewed movie since then at 97% certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes (Coco also had that grade). In North America, Hoppers is looking at $36M-$38M at 4,000 theaters with another $45M-$50M offshore. There were sneaks stateside on Saturday which will be rolled into Thursday previews which start at 2PM. Presales which are north of $3M (and include some of the preview cash) is around that of DreamWorks Animation’s The Wild Robot and Dog Man, both of which opened in the mid $30Ms.
Hoppers will share Imax with Warner Bros’ Maggie Gyllenhaal directed $80M gothic noir The Bride! which is looking at $16M-$18M domestic, with another $22M from international for a $38M-$40M global start. Media screenings began recently timed to the New York premiere on Tuesday date so no Rotten Tomatoes score yet here. The movie, you’ll remember, was originally dated to come out in early October before being moved to a spot near the Oscars where the pic’s star Jessie Buckley is up for Best Actress for Focus Features’ Hamnet. Unfortunately, Warner Bros.’ No. 1 opening box office streak (which was counted at an unprecedented nine titles with Wuthering Heights) is expected to end here. Previews in North America start at 3PM for The Bride! which also co-stars Christian Bale, Penelope Cruz, Peter Saarsgard and Jake Gyllenhaal.
The best opening post Coco ($50.8M 3-day, $72.9M 5-day) at the domestic B.O. for a Pixar original movie goes to 2020’s Onward which did $39.1M. While Covid seemed to be the blame for the lackluster start of the movie, it was an oddball premise about a troll family. Covid forced the movie into the home window promptly after theaters shuttered, the pic’s final domestic at $61.5M and global at $141.9M. However, Pixar originals continued to have uphill battles with 2023’s Elemental ($29.6M) and even worse, last June’s Elio ($20.8M). A broad audience is expected for Hoppers, not just mom and the kids. The pic has been trailing on Zootopia 2, 2025’s ultimate highest grossing movie at $426M domestic, $1.85B worldwide, since Thanksgiving. There’s no family competition worldwide until Illumination/Nintendo/Universal’s Super Mario Bros Galaxy Movie at Easter with rolling spring breaks stateside throughout March and school holidays toward the end of the month abroad.
Hoppers bounces into an 81% offshore footprint this weekend starting with Belgium, France, Indonesia, Korea, Netherlands, Philippines and Switzerland today. Tomorrow, Thursday, the movie debuts in Argentina, Austria, Bolivia, Brazil, Central America, Chile, Colombia, Croatia, Czech Rep, Denmark, Ecuador, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Portugal,Thailand, Trinidad, Ukraine and Uruguay. Friday the pic will go in Finland, India, Norway, Poland, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and the UK. Disney is avoiding Japan this weekend as Wicked: For Good is opening this weekend (the first one did great there with close to $24M. In addition Doraemon bowed on Feb. 28. Hoppers is set for China on March 20 (avoiding the backlog of Chinese New Year’s titles) and Australia on March 26 closer to the holidays.
As Zootopia 2 and GOAT have shown, talking animals also fare quite well at the international B.O.
Germany, France, UK and Mexico are expected to very good for Hoppers, especially since family does well in Latin America. Now, Korea has been a good market historically for Pixar movies, though it’s been extremely tough for Hollywood movies post Covid. It’s expected that local period movie The King’s Warden will continue to rule the B.O. for its seventh straight weekend. France could also be a No. 2 for Hoppers with local live-action family title Marsupilami heading into its fifth weekend with $40M-plus strong. Reviews in the UK ala stateside are strong for the Daniel Chong directed and co-written Hoppers. In regards to Hoppers global splash: There was a Hollywood premiere early last week at the El Capitain. the filmmakers were in Italy and there was a premiere in the UK. Voiceover star Jon Hamm has been traveling with the film for a bit abroad with several advance previews offshore.
In its second weekend stateside after hitting a franchise opening record, Paramount/Spyglass’ Scream 7, is expected to ease around -60% for a second weekend of $25.4M. Through Tuesday, the pic’s running domestic total is up to an estimated $71.4M.