Howdy, folks!
It was good news/bad news at a very eventful box office this weekend.
First, the good: “Hoppers” had the biggest opening for an original Pixar movie since 2017’s “Coco” with $46 million. Not only did families turn out for the critically acclaimed comedy, but 49% of the opening weekend audience was general, according to data from PostTrak. That means this movie appealed to a wider demo than just families, a core ingredient of what made Pixar so popular in the 2000s and 2010s.
Why did this one hit? Well, there was the “lizard” meme that started nearly a year ago with the first teaser and did wonders to raise awareness, but the movie also had rave reviews and, crucially, extremely funny trailers. As the parent of a toddler, I can attest: if the trailers for a new animated movie are genuinely funny, the kids will demand to see it. Expect “Hoppers” to have legs.
Now, the bad: “The Bride!” is a bomb with just $7.3 million on opening weekend. That puts an end to Warner Bros.’ stunning streak of 9 movies opening at No. 1 at the box office in a row.
So what happened? It whiffed its demo audience. Bad. The opening weekend crowd was 53% male and 47% female, despite filmmaker Maggie Gyllenhaal’s female-geared story of the Bride demanding agency in a male-driven world that denies her a voice. Add in poor reviews and marketing that didn’t seem to appeal to much of anyone (is it a gangster movie? A monster movie? A feminist screed? Unclear), and this project — which Warner Bros. picked up after Netflix dropped it over budget concerns — flopped.
What does this mean for Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy? After 2025’s red-hot streak and a week before Warner Bros. is about to win Best Picture — it’s either “One Battle” or “Sinners” — I’d say this is proof that creative risks aren’t without failure. But nine wins out of 10 in a row? I’ll take those odds.
Box Office: ‘Hoppers’ Tops With $46 Million Opening, but ‘The Bride!’ Gets Gunned Down With $7 Million
The mini-summer period known as March brought a hit and a bomb to the box office as things got underway. Pixar has rebounded from the historic bust of “Elio” with “Hoppers,” an original film that earned a $46 million domestic and $88 million global start at the box office.
Digging into those numbers shows more reasons for optimism, as “Hoppers” jumped from a $13 million opening day to $19 million on Saturday, lifted by strong word-of-mouth from audiences and a marketing campaign that was more effective than for “Elio.” Whether it is because “Hoppers” lends itself more to memes (“lizard…lizard…lizard…”) or talking animals are a better sell to families than insectoid aliens without eyes, it has enjoyed stronger pre-release buzz than any original animated film that has come out since the pandemic.
Then there’s the bust: Warner Bros.’ hot streak came to an abrupt end with “The Bride!,” an $80 million noir-tinged monster film that only made $13 million worldwide this weekend.
Unlike “Mickey 17,” which was greenlit under previous studio chief Toby Emmerich, “The Bride!” is the first theatrical blunder developed entirely under current heads Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy. The pair have reaped the benefits of taking risks and devoting a good portion of their slate to films driven by directors rather than recognizable IP, as evidenced by Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners” and Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another,” both of which are expected to win multiple Oscars next week. That even continued to a lesser extent with Emerald Fennell’s “Wuthering Heights,” which has grossed more than $210 million worldwide so far at the box office and will turn a modest theatrical profit.
But it wouldn’t be called “risk-taking” if there was no chance of the audience not buying what the studio was selling, and that was the case with “The Bride!,” which earned a C+ on CinemaScore while critics’ reviews were all over the place, ranging from exasperated to exhilarated. Unable to get a supermajority of critics on its side or turn its polarized reception into watercooler conversation like “Wuthering Heights,” audiences in the mood for gory thrills turned to the franchise familiarity of “Scream 7,” which earned $19 million this weekend. – Jeremy Fuster
The Spotlight
As David Ellison builds out his newly acquired Paramount (all while working to close the Warner Bros. deal), a troubling trend is taking shape. Many of the new hires at Paramount over the last several weeks and months have been men with troubled pasts — screenwriter Max Landis, who was accused of sexual assault by multiple women, is the latest hire in a string that includes Brett Ratner, John Lasseter, Johnny Depp and president Jeff Shell. Why, and what signal does this send to women in the industry? Read the full story here.
New Releases
Box Office Deep Dive: Jeremy Fuster goes even deeper into this weekend’s box office with four key takeaways.
“One Battle” vs. “Sinners”: Who wins at the Oscars? Casey Loving breaks it down with one week to go.
How “Hoppers” Was Made: Drew Taylor spoke with the filmmakers behind “Hoppers” to find out how the film’s idiosyncrasies stayed intact through six years of development.
Ben Affleck, Hollywood Peacemaker?: As Netflix buys Ben Affleck’s AI company, Roger Cheng wonders whether the Oscar-winning filmmaker could be the one to lead Hollywood’s embrace of the tech.
Andrew Stanton Returns to Live-Action: Speaking of Pixar, Taylor also spoke with Andrew Stanton about his Hulu movie “In the Blink of an Eye,” which marks his first live-action film since “John Carter.”
“The Wild Robot 2” Scoop: “The Wild Robot 2” is happening, and we’ve got the exclusive details.
TheWrapBook Vol. 5: Step into the Art of Cinema in the latest issue of our collectible WrapBook.
Concession Stand
“Monsters, Inc. 3” and a musical from Domee Shi are in the works at Pixar.
Ben Stiller slammed the White House for using footage from “Tropic Thunder” in his “hype video” for the Iran War.
Filmmaker Lee Isaac Chung exited the “Ocean’s 11” prequel that’s due to star Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling.
We’re getting a Lorne Michaels documentary in theaters!
Luxury theater chain iPic filed for bankruptcy.
Streaming Corner
- “Sinners” has had a significant streaming boost on HBO Max throughout the duration of Oscar season, and if history repeats, it’s due for a revenue boost as well. Per Parrot Analytics data, “Everything Everywhere All at Once” brought in $6 million in streaming revenue after it won Best Picture. Another wave of incremental revenue could be coming Warner Bros.’ way if “Sinners” takes the gold.
What I’m Watching
We were one of the many families who saw “Hoppers” this weekend and man, what a wonderfully madcap movie. It hit for my son big time, but it’s also just a delightfully eccentric comedy, the likes of which I’m not sure Pixar has ever made before. Add it to the “zany/smart” pantheon of animated films that also includes Netflix’s “The Mitchells vs. the Machines.”
