A weekly film and box office newsletter. Howdy, folks! It was good news/bad news at a very eventful box office this weekend. First, the good: "Hoppers" had the biggest opening for an original Pixar movie since 2017's "Coco" with $46 million. Not only did families turn out for the critically acclaimed comedy, but 49% of the opening weekend audience was general, according to data from PostTrak. That means this movie appealed to a wider demo than just families, a core ingredient of what made Pixar so popular in the 2000s and 2010s. Why did this one hit? Well, there was the "lizard" meme that started nearly a year ago with the first teaser and did wonders to raise awareness, but the movie also had rave reviews and, crucially, extremely funny trailers. As the parent of a toddler, I can attest: if the trailers for a new animated movie are genuinely funny, the kids will demand to see it. Expect "Hoppers" to have legs. Now, the bad: "The Bride!" is a bomb with just $7.3 million on opening weekend. That puts an end to Warner Bros.' stunning streak of 9 movies opening at No. 1 at the box office in a row. So what happened? It whiffed its demo audience. Bad. The opening weekend crowd was 53% male and 47% female, despite filmmaker Maggie Gyllenhaal's female-geared story of the Bride demanding agency in a male-driven world that denies her a voice. Add in poor reviews and marketing that didn't seem to appeal to much of anyone (is it a gangster movie? A monster movie? A feminist screed? Unclear), and this project — which Warner Bros. picked up after Netflix dropped it over budget concerns — flopped. What does this mean for Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy? After 2025's red-hot streak and a week before Warner Bros. is about to win Best Picture — it's either "One Battle" or "Sinners" — I'd say this is proof that creative risks aren't without failure. But nine wins out of 10 in a row? I'll take those odds. Adam Chitwood 
Box Office: 'Hoppers' Tops With $46 Million Opening, but 'The Bride!' Gets Gunned Down With $7 MillionThe mini-summer period known as March brought a hit and a bomb to the box office as things got underway. Pixar has rebounded from the historic bust of “Elio” with “Hoppers,” an original film that earned a $46 million domestic and $88 million global start at the box office. Digging into those numbers shows more reasons for optimism... 
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