Pixar’s 9-Year Box Office Reign Ends: Hoppers Leaps to No. 1 as The Bride Flops

Weekend box office whiplash: The Bride! tanks as Pixar lands its first original hit in nearly a decade.

Wild weekend at the movies: one big swing face-planted, one hopped off with the crown, and everything else scrambled for position in between.

'The Bride!' takes a costly tumble

The Bride! arrived with ambition, a $90 million price tag, and a premise that was always going to raise eyebrows: Jessie Buckley plays a dead woman brought back to life in 1930s Chicago as a companion for Frankenstein's monster. They roll across the country on a Bonnie-and-Clyde-style tear, the Bride sparks a feminist uprising, and yes, there are dance numbers. Maggie Gyllenhaal directs her second feature after 2021's The Lost Daughter, an intimate drama that didn’t earn much theatrically (it cost far less and was released domestically by Netflix, which doesn’t emphasize wide theatrical runs).

The rollout did not go the way Warner Bros. hoped. The Bride! opened to $7.3 million domestically and $13.6 million worldwide, well below even conservative estimates from independent trackers that pegged a $10 to $15 million domestic debut. Critics are split: most agree it swings hard; not everyone thinks those swings connect. With that spend, the studio stands to feel the sting.

"In an increasingly 'risk-averse' business like ours, we believe the business is better served with studios taking bold swings on originals like this one. Even the 1927 Yankees had 44 losses that season."

Decent attitude. Still, this ends Warner Bros.' nine-film hot streak that started last year with A Minecraft Movie. They notched wins with original horror like Sinners and Weapons along the way, but The Bride! might be a touch too experimental for a broad crowd.

Meanwhile, 'Hoppers' does exactly what Pixar needed

On the other end of the spectrum, Pixar's Hoppers owned the weekend with $46 million domestic and $88 million worldwide. It still has ground to make up on its $150 million budget (by Pixar standards, that’s actually on the cheaper side), but animated family films have been pulling long, healthy runs lately. Inside Out 2, Zootopia 2, and The Super Mario Bros. Movie all showed there’s real staying power for the right title. GOAT is backing that up right now, sitting in fourth place in its third weekend and up to $146 million global on an $80 million budget.

What makes Hoppers more interesting: it’s Pixar’s best-performing original in years, and critics are calling it the studio’s best film in a long time. The story follows Mabel, an animal lover who winds up in a robotic beaver body so she can talk to other animals about their habitat being destroyed. Not subtle, but the execution seems to be landing.

"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," said Disney Entertainment Co-Chairman Alan Bergman. "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."

For context: while sequels like Toy Story 4 and Inside Out 2 have kept Pixar squarely in the win column, their originals hit a rough stretch. Soul (2020), Luca (2021), and Turning Red (2022) going straight to streaming during the pandemic muddy the apples-to-apples comparison, and Onward had the bad luck of opening in March 2020. But 2025’s Elio face-planted theatrically with $154 million on a $150 million budget, and even 2023’s Elemental needed long legs to turn the narrative around after a rocky debut. Hoppers feels like a true course correction.

Other weekend movers

Scream 7 slid to second in its sophomore frame, adding $17.3 million domestically. That’s a steep 74% drop, but the film has already pulled in $149.4 million worldwide on a $45 million budget, so it’s still in the black.

Weekend Box Office Top 10 (March 6–8, 2026)

• 1) Hoppers — $46 million domestic; $88 million global — Week 1
• 2) Scream 7 — $93.3 million domestic; $149.4 million global — Week 2
• 3) The Bride! — $7.3 million domestic; $13.6 million global — Week 1
• 4) GOAT — $83.8 million domestic; $146 million global — Week 3
• 5) Wuthering Heights — $78 million domestic; $213 million global — Week 4
• 6) Crime 101 — $33.1 million domestic; $60.6 million global — Week 5
• 7) EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert — $10.9 million domestic; $20.2 million global — Week 2
• 8) Send Help — $62.7 million domestic; $91.4 million global — Week 5
• 9) I Can Only Imagine 2 — $16.2 million domestic; $16.2 million global — Week 2
• 10) Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle — $135.8 million domestic; $734.7 million global — Week 2

What’s next

Next weekend’s biggest new arrival looks like the romantic drama Reminders of Him. The weekend after that, Project Hail Mary takes its shot at the crown.