Film

Pixar Pulls The Biggest Comeback Of The Decade With New Disney Movie Setting Box Office Record

8 March 2026

Pixar has achieved a major box office comeback due to the opening weekend success of Hoppers.

While Inside Out 2 grossed $1.7 billion worldwide, most of Pixar’s original films have struggled at the box office in recent years. Elio and Lightyear significantly underperformed, and even though Elemental made a profit after a disappointing start, it did not reach the financial heights of past Pixar movies. With a projected domestic opening between $35 and $40 million, it seemed as though Hoppers would have the studio’s best box office premiere for an original in years.

Per Deadline, Hoppers has surpassed these projections, grossing $88 million worldwide during its opening weekend after earning $46 million domestically and $42 million internationally. This is the best global debut for an original Pixar animated movie since Coco in 2017, which opened with $104.7 million. It is also higher than the global starts for Onward at $65.6 million and Elemental at $65.1 million.

Onward‘s opening came only about a week before lockdowns went into effect due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the circumstances of which do not make it entirely fair for comparison. That being said, Hoppers outperformed not only Elemental, but also Elio and Lightyear.

Hoppers‘ early record-breaking box office success bodes well for the future of original Pixar movies, which has been brought into question after financial struggles for several such films. Pixar will likely now have more confidence in Gatto and their other original stories that are in the works, along with greenlighting more moving forward. Hoppers‘ performance is also notable because it did not come during a holiday window, the success of which Gatto may be able to replicate with its release scheduled for March 5, 2027.

Along with its box office accolades, Hoppers‘ reviews have been stellar, with a 94% score from both critics and audiences on Rotten Tomatoes. It is already being widely hailed as Pixar’s best movie since Coco, which is fitting given the numbers for the two movies’ opening weekends. In ScreenRant‘s review, Gregory Nussen celebrates Hoppers for being “a welcome return to a time of yore, when kids were trusted to pick up on important themes — all while laughing their heads off.”

While Hoppers is a major win for Pixar and their commitment to making original movies, they still have many sequels coming in the next few years. Toy Story 5 will be released on June 19, while Incredibles 3 and Coco 2 are respectively slated for 2028 and 2029, and a third Monsters Inc. movie is reportedly in development as well.