Pixar original’s Hoppers leaped to a $46M U.S./Canada opening, the best seen for a Pixar original as well an original animated movie since 2017’s Coco. Global was also big at $88M, $42M of that from 40 territories. Not only is it a big comeback for a sub-genre that families would flock to without question pre-streaming, but also Pixar is a phoenix rising here. This has fueled a $98M overall domestic box office weekend, +76% over the same period a year ago.

Alan Bergman, Disney Co-Chairman of Disney Entertainment beamed, “This is a fantastic original film from the incredible team at Pixar, and it’s wonderful to see audiences coming out with their friends and families to enjoy it together. Congratulations to our director Daniel Chong, our producer Nicole Paradis Grindle, and our talented cast, along with Pete Docter, Jim Morris, and everyone at Pixar, on a tremendous launch.”

There have been about 19 original animated films released between 2017’s Coco and Hoppers. EntTelligence counts 3.4M admissions. Previously, DreamWorks Animation’s Wild Robot posted the best opening weekend admissions for an original animated movie. Foot traffic was 62% during matinees (before 5PM). Overall, Hoppers had 43% of the foot traffic for the weekend with 30% programmed seats versus Bride!‘s 7% foot traffic with 13% programmed seats. The movie played fairly evenly throughout rural (100K-500K populations), medium (500K-1M), urban (1M-2.5M) and high urban (over 2.5M population) areas per EntTelligence.

However, this weekend isn’t a win for auteur-driven genre, specifically Maggie Gyllenhaal’s $80M feature production The Bride! (some yell at me that it’s really $100M) which audiences aren’t making a date with, giving the Jessie Buckley and Christian Bale movie a C+ CinemaScore, a low 43% definite recommend on Screen Engine/Comscore’s PostTrak and $7.3M in ticket sales. The Bride! isn’t getting engaged to foreign audiences either with global at $13.6M. Bride!‘s domestic start is the lowest for Warner Bros since last year’s Alto Knights ($3.1M opening; not Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim, we stand corrected). A year ago, the sci-fi auteur-driven misfire Mickey 17 opened higher at $19M. We’ll unstitch The Bride! in a bit.

Word of mouth is great on Hoppers with a solid A CinemaScore and a very good 75% definite recommend on PostTrak. Kids under 12 are giving it 90% positive on PostTrak and a 61% must-see right away. What’s working here? Pixar made their movies “fun” and “funny” again. Read, there’s a scene in the middle of the film [SPOILER ALERT] where the Beaver accidentally squishes something. The entire El Capitan Theater at the Hollywood premiere roared in that moment. Also, don’t underestimate talking animal movies. Post Zootopia 2, GOAT, they’re the motion picture industry’s best friends. Why was Pixar tying its shoelaces together and falling down with originals? A WSJ profile says that Docter inspired fresh filmmakers to make autobiographical movies that weren’t necessarily wide-appealing.

Hoppers! is female leaning among general audiences at 53%. Overall, an even play among demos with Female over 25 leading at 29%, men over 25 at 27%, women under 25 at 23% and men under 25 at 21%. Overall make-up of the audience is 52% general, 24% parent, and 24% kids under 12. Diversity demos are 45% Caucasian, 26% Hispanic and Latino, 14% Asian American, 8% Black and 6% Native American. PLFs and Imax together drove 35% of the weekend with the pic playing best in South Central, Mountain and West. 3D repped 10% of the box. The AMC Dine-In Disney Springs, Florida is the pic’s best grossing location currently with around $88K through Saturday.

The Bride! drew 53% guys, 47% women. The 25-34 set had the best turnout (if you can call it that) at 31%. 18-34 repped 56%. Diversity demos are 51% Caucasian, 26% Latino and Hispanic, 10% Black, 9% Asian American and 4% other. Interestingly enough, I hear that The Bride! is doing well in all East and West theaters where Hamnet fared well, but that’s a small crowd considering the Oscar contender has a current running stateside gross of $23.7M. AMC Lincoln Square with around $51K is the movie’s top grossing location through Saturday night.

Golly gosh, what’s up here? We’re still sorting but period horror is hard. We’ve always said that, and Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu ($21.6M 3-day, $95.6M final domestic) is an anomaly. Period horror is typically expensive and risky (hence why Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein went to Netflix; that said the streamer passed on The Bride! given its budget). Period horror divides genre and sophisticated moviegoers, the Bride! making its play toward the latter. “It’s an A24 genre movie,” said one industry source, but it’s at a significantly much higher production cost. “The motion picture industry is in such a fragile state, we can’t afford misses like this. Scripts should be better baked,” cried the same source. Warner Bros shouldn’t be faulted for backing an auteur and getting behind a daredevil genre project with a different angle. The industry questioned such pricey swings as Sinners and One Battle After Another, but those clearly paid off. For all the pre-release dinging that One Battle After Another endured, no one predicted that it would be an awards season juggernaut. In order to take the swings on a movie like The Bride! on a motion picture slate, it’s offset by the Supermans, the Minecraft Movies, etc on the schedule. That said, the word was always out that The Bride! was a challenge to pin down during post-production. The release date changed two times from the first weekend in October 2025 to the last weekend in September to finally this weekend (that latter move was made a year ago by Warners). As insular as Hollywood may be perceived, word of mouth gets out and becomes wildfire with John Q public in the social media age. Most first cuts start out messy and long; some are harnessed and course-corrected, and others like this, I hear, were hard to land in regards to pacing. When it comes to The Bride! being left at the altar, it’s not about marketing with this movie. Christian Bale, Buckley and Maggie Gyllenhaal have been on a heavy duty press tour over the last two weeks in NYC and London. It’s in the DNA of the movie. It doesn’t want to be a horror film.

Separately, tracking service Greenlight Analytics (né The Quorum) showed Netflix’s Frankenstein converting awareness into interest at an unusually efficient rate (70% Interest Among Aware by release) back in November, with balanced gender appeal and strong under-35 buy-in. “These are the same demos that typically drive theatrical genre turnout,” read a recent report. By comparison, The Bride!‘s diagnostics were low with a theatrical audience intent of 32%, Opening Weekend intent among aware audiences at 16%, and Willingness to Pay at 42%. Numbers which “reflect a lack of urgency and lower-ceiling monetization potential,” added Greenlight.

“The behavioral pattern may indicate that Netflix’s lauded November release absorbed some of the audience’s Frankenstein appetite, leaving the theatrical release to compete more heavily for core genre audiences rather than broad casual demand,” said Greenlight.

The weekend’s top 10, updated with Sunday figures.

via Deadline