Pixar was back with Hoppers, which topped the box office and led to their biggest debut for an original in 9 years. Unsurprisingly, Scream 7 fell sharply from its record-breaking debut. But this week's real loser was WB's The Bride!, which easily became the year's biggest flop so far.

The Top 10 earned a combined $88.9 million this weekend. That's up a massive 83.6% from last year, when Novocaine and Black Bag failed to ignite the box office.

Debuting at #1, Disney/Pixar's Hoppers debuted with a pretty good $45.3 million in 4,000 theaters. This is the best debut for a Pixar original since Coco ($50.8 million) back in 2017, and it's also the biggest for an original animated film since that one.

It's not unreasonable to say that Pixar has had a mixed run since the pandemic. While sequels have kept the franchise abroad, they've also struggled in launching original titles. A few of them were sent to Disney+, which helped dilute the theatrical brand, while something like Elemental opened poorly before legging out. And then there was last year's Elio, which became their biggest financial failure. So it was pivotal that Hoppers would succeed.

To do that, Disney hoped to emphasize the bonkers premise (a girl has her mind transferred into a lifelike robotic beaver to communicate with animals), but also showing that this would be a fun ride. Parents love an interesting premise, but they also need to know that the film looks funny and worth the ticket price. And Disney mounted an extensive and aggressive marketing campaign to reach families. This had an advantage that Elio didn't have last summer, and the PLF screens surely helped.

Another factor to consider is that the animated market has been clamoring for a new film. This year, we've only had two animated films: Hoppers and Goat, with the latter almost one month old. Through early March, there haven't been a lot of options for families, so Hoppers seized the opportunity to break out. And strong reviews (94% on RT) didn't hurt either.

According to Disney, 53% of the audience was female, and 56% were 25 and over. They gave it a great "A" on CinemaScore, indicating that word of mouth will be strong. March is quite empty, and it won't have family competition till The Super Mario Galaxy Movie in one month. Given how Pixar's films often have great legs, a $160 million domestic total is likely for Hoppers.

In second place, last week's champ Scream 7 added $17 million. This is a horrible 73% second weekend drop, the largest in the franchise. The second largest was Scream 4 (62.4%), and followed by Scream 6 (61%). Even by horror standards, this is a brutal drop, and it's even worse than Halloween Kills' 70.8% drop (and that film was released day-and-date on Peacock). This indicates that the film's poor word of mouth is catching up with it.

Through 10 days, Scream 7 has amassed $93 million domestically. It's already outgrossed the lifetime grosses of the third, fourth and fifth installments. While the film opened $19 million higher than Scream 6, the film is already losing in daillies to that film. It's still set to outgross that film to become the franchise's biggest ever film, but it looks like the film will tap out at $120 million. Which means it will be the franchise's first film to miss the 2x multiplier.

In third place, we find the week's biggest disappointment. That's WB's The Bride!, which flopped with just $7 million in 3,304 theaters. This debut is less than half of what Mickey 17 ($19 million) did around this point last year. It's the 66th worst ever debut for a film playing in 3,000 theaters, and it also ends WB's streak of consecutive #1 openers. Even more depressing stats: the debut is less than 10% of its reported $90 million budget (with some estimates going as high as $100+ million).

It doesn't take a genius to find how it all went wrong here. The film's jarring combination of gothic horror, romance, and gangster makes for a very inconsistent film. While there are films that can successfully combine many horrors, the idea of Frankenstein's Monster and the Bride in 1930s Chicago leads many to ponder if the film could pull it off. And it seems like it didn't.

While horror films are often profitable, a big reason for that is that they're very low budget, allowing them to reach low barriers just to be considered successful. A $90 million budget is quite high, even if the film's period pieces and locations are the reasons for that. While ambition can be commendable, it's still a risk. Gothic horror is a hard sell, with Nosferatu proving to be an anomaly that connected with audiences. But that film had a much easier sell, it's not like it was mixing so many genres.

The film's marketing also did it no favors. While they tried to highlight visuals, the story was very light, the tone was all over the place, and the taglines ("here comes the motherfucking…!") came off as try-hard instead of intriguing. Instead of hyping audiences, it just left them bewildered by such a swing. WB spent $65 million in marketing the film, but it looks like it didn't make any difference.

There's also a thing about the names attached. WB sold this film as Maggie Gyllenhaal's new film after the success of The Lost Daughter back in 2021. But it's not like the film was a hit with audiences when it hit Netflix (audience ratings for the film are quite weak compared to the film's critical acclaim). WB successfully launched vehicles for Ryan Coogler and Paul Thomas Anderson last year, but Gyllenhaal didn't have that level of fans to gauge interest, even prior to becoming a director. And even with respected names like Jessie Buckley and Christian Bale attached, both aren't exactly popular names that draw crowds. Buckley hasn't had a single hit as lead star other than Hamnet, while Bale has struggled to attract audiences outside IPs.

Finally, there's also the matter over how many Frankenstein related projects can the audience handle in so much close proximity. Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein was a bit hit since its debut back in November, and it's set to get some Oscar wins this coming Sunday. Perhaps the audience thought one was enough. But the real nail in the coffin was the reviews. A film could be excused for its weird decisions if it can amount for a great experience, but the reviews (59% on RT) confirmed that the film did not live up to its full potential.

According to WB, 56% of the audience was in the 18-34 demographic. Even though it was hoping for some strong female turnout, women represented just 47% of the audience. They gave it a weak "C+" on CinemaScore, which fits nicely with its mixed reviews. Given its brutal numbers, it's gonna lose theaters quickly and it will vanish from theaters very soon. It'd be surprising if The Bride! got anywhere close to $20 million by the end of its run.

In fourth place, Sony's Goat was slightly affected by the arrival of Hoppers. It dropped 45% this weekend, earning $6.4 million. The film has amassed $83.68 million domestically, and it's still set to earn over $100 million.

Wuthering Heights dropped 44%, earning $3.7 million this weekend. The film's domestic total stands at $78.7 million.

Crime 101 dropped 41% and added $2 million this weekend. Through Sunday, it has earned a meager $33.61 million.

Even with the great response, Neon's EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert is not finding new fans. It dropped a rough 56% this weekend, earning $1.5 million. The film has earned $10.9 million, and it looks to close with around $13 million domestically.

20th Century Studios' Send Help eased 44%, grossing $1.5 million. That takes its domestic total to $62.6 million.

Yeah, it's pretty much clear I Can Only Imagine 2 will disappear quickly from theaters despite the enthusiastic word of mouth. It dropped a further 52%, earning just $1.5 million this weekend. The film has earned a middling $16.2 million, still not reaching the original's opening weekend ($17.1 million) after 3 weeks in theaters.

Rounding out the Top 10 was the re-emergence of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Infinity Castle. It returned to 832 theaters, and it cracked $1.3 million this weekend. Taking its domestic total to $135.8 million.

OVERSEAS

Hoppers debuted with $42 million overseas, for a $87.3 million worldwide launch. The biggest markets were the UK ($6.4M), Mexico ($3.7M), France ($3.6M), Germany ($3.5M), Spain ($2.8M), Korea ($2.1M), Italy ($1.9M) and Brazil ($1.8M). Not quite "great" per se, but the thing about Pixar is that these films are known for legging out. There are still more markets left to open, so we'll keep an eye on this one.

Scream 7 added $15.6 million overseas, taking its worldwide total to $149.1 million. That's a rough 50% drop in holdovers, although that drop at least it's better than its horrible domestic drop. The film is set to become the highest grossing in the franchise, although its chances of hitting $200 million worldwide aren't guaranteed now.

With $8.7 million overseas, Wuthering Heights has become the first film of the year to cross the $200 million worldwide milestone.

If you thought The Bride! was dead domestically, just imagine how poorly it has done outside America. It earned an abysmal $6.3 million, for a pathetic $13.3 million worldwide launch. The film had very poor debuts across the board, without a single #1 debut; the "best" debuts were the UK ($950K) Mexico ($753K), China ($538K), France ($406K), Brazil ($376K), Spain ($304K), Italy ($292K), Australia ($281K), Germany ($181K), Korea ($135K), Colombia ($116K) and Poland ($114k). Fucking ouch, man.

FILMS THAT ENDED THEIR RUN THIS WEEK

Movie Release Date Studio Domestic Opening Domestic Total Worldwide Total Budget The Housemaid Dec/19 Lionsgate $19,010,430 $126,432,462 $376,342,873 $35M Anaconda Dec/25 Sony $14,502,218 $64,583,382 $134,255,663 $45M

Lionsgate's The Housemaid has closed with a fantastic $126 million domestically and $376 million worldwide. Given the very rough years they've had, this is a much needed win. It showed that the popularity of the novel has been successfully translated to the big screen. No wonder they're already working on a sequel.

Sony's Anaconda has closed with a very solid $64 million and $134 million worldwide. Not a bad result for a horror comedy, especially considering those often miss at the box office lately. Seems like "Jack Black and Paul Rudd try to remake Anaconda" was enough of a hook for audiences.

THIS WEEKEND

Only one wide theatrical release. And that's Universal's Reminders of Him, adaptation of Colleen Hoover's novel and starring Maika Monroe and Tyriq Withers. The prior Hoover adaptations didn't get good reception, but they sure cashed in a lot of money at the box office. This probably won't be any different.