As of late, we’ve had some big movie releases. From “Project Hail Mary” to “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie,” these movies have been grabbing the attention of audiences. They’ve also been successful at the box office. “Project Hail Mary” is currently at over $500 million, and “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” is currently over $630 million. However, one movie’s surprising success stands out: Pixar’s “Hoppers.”
Since 2020, Pixar movies haven’t been the box office hits like they used to be. Movies like “Finding Nemo” and “Toy Story 3” were the ones that made Pixar the big bucks. However, it seems that those days have been decreasing as time has gone on. The only exceptions to this are “Inside Out 2” and even “Elemental”, which was a sleeper hit. Aside from those two, the past Pixar movies didn’t do well. Because of this, the success of “Hoppers” is more surprising. It begs the question, what could this mean for Pixar’s future?
Build-up to Hoppers and the aftermath
“Hoppers” follows a girl named Mabel (Piper Curda), who loves nature and wants to save the forest glade in her town. In an attempt to save it, she transfers her mind into a robot beaver and heads to the forest. She meets a beaver named King George (Bobby Moynihan), who’s king of the forest mammals, and they form a special friendship. When things get worse for the glade, Mabel and George call for a meeting with the animal council. However, this goes badly as the animals want revenge on the humans for hurting their land. It’s up to Mabel and George to both save the glade and stop the animals’ revenge on humans.
When “Hoppers” was announced at D23 in August 2024, people were unsure about the project. They weren’t sure about the premise of a human girl who transfers her mind into a robot beaver. Things didn’t get much better when the movie’s marketing started. Many people reacted to the trailers and ads with non-excitement. People thought that the movie looked “generic” and was another miss for Pixar. They expected it to be another bomb for the studio.
Despite low expectations, the movie has been doing better than expected since its release on March 6. It’s been well-received by critics and audiences, and it’s currently in the Top 5 for 2026’s highest-grossing movies. As of now, it has grossed over $300 million. Plus, it has the highest opening for a Pixar original since “Coco”. If that doesn’t scream ‘success,’ then what does?
How does it compare to Pixar’s recent movies?
As mentioned previously, Pixar’s movies this decade haven’t had the same box office success as they did in the past. Even then, not every Pixar movie that has come out this decade so far was released in theaters. Movies like “Soul,” “Luca,” and “Turning Red” were released on Disney+ when they first came out. Plus, in the case of certain Pixar movies, it’s understandable why they ended up the way they did financially. When “Onward” came out in 2020, it was in the month of March, when the COVID-19 pandemic was starting. Because of this, the movie didn’t have a whole lot of time in theaters. So it’s hard to blame some of these movies for how they turned out when they had something going against them.
A big factor as to why Pixar movies nowadays aren’t as successful as before is their marketing, or lack thereof. For instance, when “Elio” came out, Disney didn’t do much to let people know that it was coming out. As a result, a fair number of people made comments on how they were unaware of the movie being released. In the case of “Hoppers”, though, Disney made sure to market this one as much as possible. Not just with trailers and ads, but also with the movie’s lizard character. Due to Disney doing this, tons and tons of people have been going to see it in theaters. This just goes to show that if you market your movie as much as possible, people will go see it. Hopefully, this’ll teach Disney to market Pixar’s movies more.
What this could mean for Pixar’s future
With “Hoppers” doing very well at the box office, this could mean that Pixar originals can still be successful. Within the past few years, some have said that Pixar originals are starting to decline in popularity. Folks online have said that people are shifting their attention to different animation studios and the original movies that they’re making. Add to it, original animated movies from different studios have been doing better than Pixar in terms of financial success. Animation studios like Sony Animation are the ones making animated movies that end up being more financially successful than Pixar’s. Now that Pixar’s latest original has been doing well lately, this may show that Pixar originals still have legs. This may show that people’s interest in Pixar hasn’t entirely gone away.
Next year, Pixar is releasing an original movie titled “Gatto”, which is about a black cat questioning his life. All that we know about this movie so far is info from the filmmakers and image art that was released. The animation style has been said to look like a hand-painting, which is experimental for Pixar. It’ll be directed by Enrico Casarosa, who directed “Luca”, and it’s slated to come out on March 5, 2027. If this movie also ends up being a success, then we may be looking at Pixar getting its groove back.
