Disney and Pixar’s environmental adventure “Hoppers” topped the North American box office this weekend with $46 million in domestic ticket sales in its opening weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday.
After adding another $42 million from international showings, the film celebrated an $88 million global launch in total, the biggest for an original animated film since “Coco” came out in 2017.
But it wasn’t all good news for big studio fare at the multiplex: Maggie Gyllenhaal’s R-rated reimagining of the Bride of Frankenstein story is flailing. A Warner Bros. release, “The Bride!” starring Jessie Buckley and Christian Bale, debuted to an estimated $7.3 million from 3,304 domestic locations. It cost around $80 million to produce, not including marketing and promotion expenses.
The two movies were hardly competing with one another for viewers — one being a PG-rated family pic, the other an audacious, R-rated, genre-blending ride. “Hoppers” arrived to a slew of good reviews, while critical responses to “The Bride!” were mixed to negative and its audience scores weren’t much better.
“Hoppers” win was much needed for Disney and Pixar following last year’s “Elio,” which was Pixar's worst opening ever. The studio’s only major successes lately have been sequels and franchises, while “Hoppers” is a win for original fare. It also opened higher than 2023’s “Elemental,” which eventually went on to become a sleeper hit (“Elio” did not).
“Hoppers” had a reported $150 million production budget and opened in 4,000 locations. Directed by Daniel Chong, the movie is about a 19-year-old environmentalist who infiltrates the animal world in the body of a beaver. It features the voices of Piper Curda, Bobby Moynihan, Jon Hamm and Kathy Najimy.
“Hoppers” got a 94% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, 75% “definitely recommend” from PostTrak polling and an A CinemaScore, suggesting it should have a long and profitable run in theaters.
“This is a fantastic original film from the incredible team at Pixar, and it’s wonderful to see audiences coming out with their friends and families to enjoy it together,” said Alan Bergman, co-chairman of Disney Entertainment, in a statement. He also congratulated the filmmaking team on “a tremendous launch.”
“The Bride!” had a bit of a bumpy path to theaters, with edits being made after reportedly poor test screenings. Its release date was pushed back from September, possibly to give it some space versus Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein,” which played in theaters last fall before hitting Netflix.
Men made up a slight majority of the audience for “The Bride!” at 53%. The movie currently carries a “rotten” 59% on Rotten Tomatoes and a lackluster C+ CinemaScore. Only 43% of that audience said they would “definitely recommend.”
And it doesn’t seem like international audiences will be much help: It made only $6.3 million outside of the U.S. and Canada, bringing its global debut to $13.6 million.
“Unfortunately, we came in light,” said Jeffrey Goldstein, who oversees domestic distribution for Warner Bros., in a text message. “We have a tailored approach to our slate, investing strategically in talent, IP and original storytelling. It spans genres and budget levels and allows us to back bold, distinctive filmmakers … and sometimes things just don’t work out.”
Warner Bros.' other recent release, “Wuthering Heights,” meanwhile, has surpassed $213 million globally. And next week, the studio, which is staring down new ownership under Paramount, is expected to sweep the Oscars between “One Battle After Another” and “Sinners.”
“We’re coming off an incredible run of nine No. 1 openings in a row, and in an increasingly ‘risk-averse’ business like ours, we believe the business is better served with studios taking bold swings on originals like this one,” Goldstein said. “Even the 1927 Yankees had 44 losses that season.”
Paramount’s “Scream 7” landed in second place in its second weekend with $17.3 million, down a whopping 73% and bringing its domestic total to $93.4 million and its global total to $149.5 million. Sony's “GOAT” came in fourth place with $6.6 million while “Wuthering Heights” rounded out the top five with $3.8 million.
“When there’s this many holdovers in the top 10, it says we haven’t had enough horsepower in the newcomers to really get things moving,” said Paul Dergarabedian, Comscore’s head of marketplace trends.
But he anticipates that will change when the Ryan Gosling-led sci-fi adventure “Project Hail Mary” hits theaters on March 20.
With final domestic figures being released Monday, this list factors in the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore:
1. “Hoppers,” $46 million.
2. “Scream 7,” $17.3 million.
3. “The Bride!” $7.3 million.
4. “GOAT,” $6.6 million.
5. “Wuthering Heights,” $3.8 million.
6. “Crime 101,” $2.1 million.
7. “Send Help,” $1.6 million.
8. “I Can Only Imagine 2,” $1.5 million.
9. “EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert,” $1.5 million.
10. “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba Infinity Castlee,” $1.3 million.
Director Maggie Gyllenhaal attends the premiere of Warner Bros. Pictures' "The Bride!" at The Rose Theater Jazz at Lincoln Center on Wednesday, March 3, 2026, in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)
GENEVA (AP) — The cruise ship at the center of a deadly hantavirus outbreak and which is stuck off the coast of Cape Verde with nearly 150 people on board was waiting Wednesday to head to Spain’s Canary Islands. Meanwhile, health authorities in South Africa and Switzerland identified a strain of the virus that can be transmitted between humans in rare cases.
Three passengers have died and several others have been sickened by hantavirus on board the Dutch-flagged MV Hondius cruise ship. Hantavirus usually spreads by inhaling contaminated rodent droppings.
The ship left Argentina on April 1 on an Atlantic cruise and was scheduled to include stops in Antarctica, the Falkland Islands and other locations. However, the itinerary appears to have changed because of the situation on board.
The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said three patients with suspected hantavirus cases have been evacuated from the ship and are on their way to the Netherlands.
He said the U.N. health agency is working with the operators of the cruise ship to closely monitor the health of passengers and crew.
“At this stage, the overall public health risk remains low,” he wrote on his X account.
Among the patients is the ship's doctor, Spain’s health ministry has said. The ministry said on Wednesday that the doctor, who was initially scheduled to be flown to the Canary Islands, is now being evacuated directly home to the Netherlands “after his health had improved."
Authorities in Switzerland also announced Wednesday that a man who returned from a trip to South America and traveled on the cruise ship has tested positive for the virus and is receiving treatment.
Spain’s health ministry said in a statement late Tuesday that it would receive the MV Hondius vessel in the Canary Islands after a request from the World Health Organization and the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control. Despite some opposition from leaders in the region, the government insisted that it would ultimately make the call.
For now the luxury cruise ship remains marooned off the coast of Cape Verde, an island nation off West Africa in the Atlantic. The World Health Organization said passengers are isolating in their cabins.
South African health authorities said they identified the Andes strain of hantavirus in two passengers who were on the ship, and Swiss authorities said they identified the same virus in their affected patient.
The World Health Organization says the Andes virus, a specific species of hantavirus, is found in South America, primarily in Argentina and Chile.
The Andes virus can be spread between people, though this is rare and the spread of the disease is typically contained because it would spread only through close contact, such as by sharing a bed or sharing food, experts say.
The South African Department of Health said its results came from tests performed on the passengers after they were removed from the ship and flown to South Africa.
One of the passengers, a British man, is in intensive care in a South African hospital. Tests were performed on the other passenger posthumously after she died in South Africa.
A statement from the Federal Office of Public Health said that the man “returned to Switzerland after traveling on the cruise ship on which there were a number of hantavirus cases.” It said his case also involved the Andes virus.
The Swiss health office initially said the patient hospitalized in Zurich had “returned from a trip to South America” with his wife at the end of April, without specifying. Simon Ming, a spokesperson for the office, clarified in an email that the patient got off during its stop in St. Helena, in the South Atlantic Ocean.
It was not immediately clear when that was or how he was returned to Switzerland.
The patient’s wife hasn’t shown any symptoms but is self-isolating as a precaution, the statement said.
The public health office said that “there is currently no risk to the Swiss public.”
The WHO said in a social media post that the man responded to “an email from the ship’s operator informing the passengers of the health event” and went to the hospital.
The cruise ship will be welcomed to Spain’s Canary Islands, according to Spanish authorities, as the vessel waited off the coast of West Africa for a third day Wednesday for sick passengers to be evacuated.
The regional president of Spain’s Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, said Wednesday that he was worried the arrival of the ship could put the local population at risk and demanded an urgent meeting with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.
“Neither the populace nor the government of the Canary Islands can rest assured because it is clear that the danger to the population is real,” Clavijo told Onda Cero radio.
The World Health Organization has said the ship had an itinerary that included stops across the South Atlantic Ocean, including mainland Antarctica and the remote islands of South Georgia, Nightingale Island, Tristan da Cunha, St. Helena and Ascension.
The cruise company has only announced some details of two stops: at St. Helena, where the body of the Dutch man suspected to be the first hantavirus case on board was taken off the ship. His wife also left the ship at St. Helena and flew to South Africa, where she died.
The company said a British man was later evacuated from the ship at Ascension Island and taken to South Africa, where he is in an intensive care unit.
The company has not said if other people left the cruise ship at those or other locations.
Asadu reported from Abuja, Nigeria, and Imray from Cape Town, South Africa. Renata Brito and Joseph Wilson in Barcelona, Geir Moulson in Berlin, and Mike Corder in The Hague, Netherlands, contributed to this report.
Health workers in protective gear evacuate patients from the MV Hondius cruise ship at a port in Praia, Cape Verde, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
Health workers in protective gear evacuate patients from the MV Hondius cruise ship at a port in Praia, Cape Verde, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
Health workers in protective gear evacuate patients from the MV Hondius cruise ship at a port in Praia, Cape Verde, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
Health workers in protective gear evacuate patients from the MV Hondius cruise ship at a port in Praia, Cape Verde, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
A night view of the MV Hondius cruise ship anchored at a port in Praia, Cape Verde, Tuesday, May 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
An aerial view of the MV Hondius Dutch cruise ship anchored in the Atlantic off Cape Verde, Tuesday, May 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Arilson Almeida)
An aerial view of the MV Hondius Dutch cruise ship anchored in the Atlantic off Cape Verde, Tuesday, May 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Arilson Almeida)
