Pixar’s Hoppers is steadily making its mark as one of the year’s best animated films, as the film has maintained its position at the top of the US box office with an additional US$28.5 million over its second weekend, bringing its global grand total to US$164.7 million.
As reported by The Hollywood Reporter, the charming animated flick has been a hit among moviegoers worldwide, gathering up another US$31 million outside of the US for a combined total of US$59.5 million over its second weekend, and together with its US$88 million global opening, Hoppers currently stands as the highest-grossing animated film of 2026 so far.
Elsewhere on the box office, Spyglass and Paramount’s Scream 7 performed respectably over its third weekend with a new grand total of US$176.9 million at the global box office, which has already overtook the lifetime hauls of both the original 1996 film (US$173 million) and the 1997 sequel (US$172 million). Considering the massive success of Hoppers, Sony’s own animated flick, GOAT, has still managed to hold its own, and has now crossed the US$150 million mark with a global haul of US$162.8 million.
Hoppers hails from director Daniel Chong and was written by Jesse Andrews, a young girl named Mabel Tanaka (Piper Curda) whose consciousness gets transferred into a robotic beaver via the “Hoppers” program in an effort to communicate with animals and save their habitat from destruction. The film also stars Bobby Moynihan as King George, Jon Hamm as Jerry Generazzo, Kathy Najimy as Dr Samantha “Sam” Fairfax, Dave Franco as Titus, and Meryl Streep as the Insect Queen.
The success of Hoppers also marks the studio’s biggest opening for an original animated feature since 2017’s Coco, which garnered an incredible US$823 million worldwide. It’s perfect timing, too, considering the middling performance of other animated films since then, such as Elio, which scored its worst-ever opening weekend of US$20.8 million, and Elemental, which garnered a lukewarm US$154 million domestic finish. Looking ahead, Pixar is set to go all in on sequels, with Toy Story 5 returning in June, followed by The Incredibles 3 and a Coco sequel in 2028 and 2029, respectively.
Kevin is a reformed PC Master Race gamer with a penchant for franchise “duds” like Darksiders III and Dead Space 3. He has made it his life-long mission to play every single major game release – lest his wallet dies trying.
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