Disney Pixar's 'Hoppers' seeks to turn viral meme into box office gold

Walt Disney's Pixar Animation Studios is hoping a viral meme featuring a googly-eyed lizard character from its new film, "Hoppers," translates into box office success when the movie opens this weekend in theatres.

The studio unwittingly spawned the social media hit when a 28-second clip of the goofy-looking sea-green reptile repeatedly tapping a glowing screen to trigger an automated voice that says "lizard" appeared in the end credits of another Pixar film, Elio, released last June.

The clip went viral. It inspired music mixes to songs from Far East Movement and The Ting Tings on TikTok, a "Lizard Click" website with a button that repeats the word "lizard" in a robotic voice, and thousands of social media posts that, within two months, attracted some 316 million views, according to Disney.

"I don't know that you can ever predict these things. As soon as you try to make something go viral, that's like certain death," said Pixar's Chief Creative Officer Pete Docter. "We just thought it was funny. We thought this character is quirky and weird."

Pixar quietly laid claim to the character in a social media post in August, simply saying, "his name is Tom."

"People fell in love with Tom the Lizard," said Martha Morrison, head of marketing for Walt Disney Studios. "Then, we were sort of figuring out when's the right time to identify that Tom the Lizard is part of our movie."

The film is about a young animal lover, Mabel, who uses new technology to "hop" her consciousness into a robotic beaver and communicate directly with animals.

While audiences have flocked to cinemas to see animated sequels, such as Disney’s Zootopia 2, which is approaching $2 billion in worldwide ticket sales, original films with unfamiliar characters and stories, like Elio, have struggled at the box office, bringing in a modest $20.8 million on opening weekend.

Hoppers is on track to open to $35 to $40 million in the US and Canada, according to one estimate.

Original animation has always been a harder sell, but that's been particularly true since the COVID-19 outbreak, when Disney released animated films like Soul, Luca and Turning Red straight to its Disney+ streaming service. Families got accustomed to seeing new animated films from the comfort of their own living rooms.

"You know, it's tough right now because people on the one hand say they want original stuff, but they, with their pocketbooks, kind of vote more for the sequels," said Docter. "I think what it is, you have to balance like stuff that people go, 'I recognise that, I see that in my own life, but it also feels like nothing I've ever seen before,' which is a really difficult needle to thread."

Tom Lizard has become an ambassador for Hoppers, showing up in person at screenings, DJ-ing an event for social media influencers and photo-bombing ESPN broadcasts in San Francisco during Super Bowl week.

The appearances are part of a broader marketing push that includes advance screenings and sneak peeks, in addition to commercials that aired during the Super Bowl and the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics.

The goal is to be in as many places as possible, convey the film's unique brand of humor and create a sense of urgency for movie-goers to head to the theaters, said Morrison.

Box office analyst Paul Dergarabedian said Hoppers has received the best reviews for a Pixar movie in a decade.

"Original animated films such as Dog Man, The Wild Robot and most recently GOAT have all done very well because they're actually good movies," said Dergarabedian. "That's a currency that can deliver dividends for the long term."