Pixar Is Closer Than Ever To Snapping A 9 Year Cold Streak With New Sci-Fi Movie

6 days ago 7

Published Feb 5, 2026, 12:45 PM EST

Cooper Hood is the Associate Editor for all new movie releases, in theaters and on streaming. In addition to writing articles about these titles and upcoming releases, he also oversees content planning for each, ensuring that ScreenRant continues to cover major releases for months after their release.

He has written various reviews for ScreenRant that appear on Rotten Tomatoes, coordinated Oscars and San Diego Comic-Con coverage, appeared on CNN to talk about Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning, and done select interviews with talent over the years.

Pixar is expected to have quite a successful year in 2026 with the summer release of Toy Story 5. It has billion-dollar expectations and looks to continue the studio's excellent recent track record with sequels at the box office, following Inside Out 2's record $1.6 billion haul. But the iconic animated movie studio hasn't had it easy the last several years overall.

After being overly reliant on sequels during the 2010s, a renewed focus on originals for the 2020s was smart. That strategy was never fully realized after the pandemic, as audiences grew used to seeing non-sequels on Disney+. That's put Pixar's new movie, Hoppers, in quite a precarious situation.

The studio's original films haven't been nearly as lucrative at the box office this decade, with last year's Elio among their lowest-grossing ever. Hoppers is another original; a sci-fi story about a girl who becomes a robotic beaver and works with real animals to save a nature preserve. And it may be Pixar's biggest hit in that department in quite some time.

Hoppers' Opening Weekend Projects Are Much Better Than Pixar's Other Recent Originals

We're just about a month away from Hoppers hitting theaters on March 6, and that's meant some early box office projections have started to surface. Official tracking will come closer to the release, but as of now, Box Office Pro has a long-range forecast of $40M-$50M for Hoppers' domestic opening weekend.

That would be the highest opening weekend for a Pixar original since 2017, when Coco made $50.8 million. Since then, the studio's non-IP films have all made less than $40 million. Should it exceed these expectations, it can dethrone Coco and become Pixar's biggest original since 2015, when Inside Out opened to $90.4 million.

Pixar Original Movies (In Last Decade)

Domestic Opening Weekend Box Office

Coco (2017)	$50.8 million
Onward (2020)	$39.1 million
Elemental (2023)	$29.6 million
Elio (2025)	$20.8 million
Soul (2020), Luca (2021), & Turning Red (2022)	N/A, released on Disney+

But just because Hoppers is projected to make $40M-$50M right now, it doesn't mean that's what it will do. Box Office Pro had a $28M-$38M forecast for Elemental and $35M-$45M for Elio at similar times ahead of those movies' releases. Elemental hit the low side of that projection, while Elio cratered well below its projected floor.

Pixar's last two originals had weaker marketing campaigns and more mixed-to-positive buzz, both of which likely factored into their lower-than-expected openings. Hoppers has so far managed to have a simple, funny marketing campaign built around an easier-to-understand premise. The few early reactions that are already online are wildly glowing, too.

That should give Hoppers a much better chance at landing with audiences when it hits theaters next month. It's in the best interest of everyone if it hits. Originals are always going to be part of Pixar's approach to storytelling, but if they continue to be non-viable theatrical bets, there's no telling what the future holds — especially as Disney enters a new era of leadership.