Pixar Is Toast: The Media Reaction to “Hoppers” Proves It

by

If you’ve been on social media lately, you’ve probably seen a big push to promote Pixar’s new movie, ‘Hoppers,’ even though it hasn’t been well-received. There’s also a narrative being pushed that Pixar is aware of the film’s issues and is working to fix them. These two ideas don’t really make sense together, but don’t assume that marketing efforts are always logical or consistent.

Everywhere you look online – from review sites like Rotten Tomatoes to platforms like X and Instagram – people are calling Pixar’s Hoppers their best film since Coco. There’s a big push to convince everyone it’s amazing. It has a high score on Rotten Tomatoes, and its early box office numbers look good compared to other original Pixar films (though it had a longer preview period). Plus, there’s a lot of enthusiastic promotion online, and even characters most people don’t recognize are being hyped as incredibly popular.

A recent study revealed that Tom Lizard, a character from #Hoppers, is just as popular as beloved Disney characters like Mickey Mouse, Stitch, Winnie the Pooh, and Olaf.

The movie releases on March 6th

— 🦫🧡HOPPERS COUNTDOWN🧡🦫 (@HopperCountdown) February 17, 2026

Pixar CCO Pete Docter on Tom Lizard from #Hoppers.

It’s impossible to predict what will become popular online. In fact, trying to make something go viral usually backfires. We just created something we found amusing, a character with a unique and slightly odd personality.

— Boardwalk Times (@BoardwalkTimes) March 7, 2026

The reality is quite different from what people are being told. Things are actually very bad.

How bad is it? Let’s take a look.

The new Pixar film, Hoppers, is projected to earn around $40 million domestically this weekend, even with an extra day of preview showings. This would make it the second-lowest opening weekend for a Pixar movie when adjusted for inflation, with only Elio performing worse. Considering the film cost $150 million to make and another $100 million to market, it needs to earn $500 million worldwide just to cover its costs – and that’s becoming increasingly unlikely. Adding to the challenge, Super Mario Bros. Galaxy is expected to be a huge hit, potentially earning $1.5 billion, and it comes out in April. That gives Hoppers just three weeks to maximize its earnings.

Pixar hasn’t released a truly original, successful film since John Lasseter’s departure (after allegations of misconduct), and it’s now mostly focused on making sequels. You’d expect big changes to be happening immediately, but that’s not the case. Any executive attempting to fix things at Pixar risks a major backlash, as the studio is deeply invested in certain social viewpoints. Even asking them to avoid controversial social issues in content aimed at children is a difficult request.

Pixar is developing its first musical film with Domee Shi attached to direct.

Shi previously directed ‘Turning Red’ and ‘Elio.’

(via @WSJ)

— ToonHive (@ToonHive) March 7, 2026

Check out that recent post from ToonHive – really take it in. It strongly suggests Pixar is in serious trouble. It seems Pixar is following the same path as Lucasfilm, and the proposed solution is… surprising. They’re putting the director of Turning Red (which Disney pulled from wide release due to poor performance) and Elio in charge of Pixar’s first-ever musical. It’s a puzzling choice, to say the least.

Yeah, that’s going to go well.

However, some Pixar employees believe Pete Docter isn’t the right leader to guide the studio forward, feeling he lacks diversity. He seems confident in a return to Pixar’s successful formula, though they first need to release Turning Red the Musical, which some are anticipating.

Pete Docter is guiding Pixar back to the kinds of simple, widely appealing ideas – like toys that come to life and monsters under the bed – that originally made the studio so successful.

“As time’s gone on, I realized my job is to make sure the films appeal to everybody.”

(Source: @WSJ)

— Boardwalk Times (@BoardwalkTimes) March 7, 2026

And this is why, folks, Pixar is toast.

Over the past decade, Disney has dramatically changed its creative direction, leading to the loss of many talented people at Pixar and its other studios like Marvel, Lucasfilm, and Disney Animation. These studios aren’t producing work at the level they once did, proving that truly exceptional creative talent is incredibly difficult to find and replace. Trying to create a Pixar-level masterpiece now is like expecting the 1999 Chicago Bulls to win a championship without Michael Jordan – it’s just not realistic.

Pixar isn’t alone in experiencing a downturn; similar issues are affecting much of Hollywood and the video game industry. There’s been a push to remove established leadership, and it’s backfired – that’s why games like World of Warcraft are also struggling right now.

Look at what they did to our game.

It’s just like what happened to DnD. We went from epic battles to “slice of life” Disney town.

— Grummz (@Grummz) March 5, 2026

It’s often asked how investors let things get to this point. Traditionally careful financial managers should have kept a close watch on the creative teams that ultimately led to the studio’s decline. But it happened anyway. Now, Pixar, once a leading animation studio, seems unable to recapture its former success. It’s resting on a reputation it hasn’t earned, appearing impressive on the surface but relying on marketing and social media to stay relevant. Like many studios, it’s lost the creative talent that once made it great.

It could take companies ten years to rebuild their workforce and regain their previous capabilities. Whether artificial intelligence will allow them that much time remains to be seen.

Read More

2026-03-07 18:58