As Pixar celebrates its best opening for an original animation title since 2017’s Coco with Hoppers this weekend ($40M current forecast in U.S./Canada), there’s a bunch of buzz coming out of the Emeryville, CA studio.
Specifically, there’s a Monsters Inc. 3 in early works, as well as the studio’s first ever musical from Turning Red filmmaker Domee Shi. In addition, an initially conceived streaming series Ono Ghost Market, inspired by Asian myths about supernatural bazaars, is being turned into a feature. In addition, the third Incredibles is heading for a 2028 release and a second Coco for 2029. There’s not release date for a Pixar film in Comscore, however, Disney has March 10 and June 16 on hold in 2028 for a movie from the Northern California animation studio.
This is all according to a Wall Street Journal profile on Pixar Studios boss Pete Docter. In the piece, Docter admits to making mistakes and falling short with the development of wide-appealing movies post John Lasseter. Disney isn’t confirming the news in the WSJ profile and none of the dates or the projects are official. Note, one walking around the Emeryville, CA campus of Pixar will find different office hubs in the two main buildings dedicated to various projects. Hence, it’s not unusual for an animation factory like Pixar to be in early development on precious franchises. Incredibles 3 was announced at Disney fan confab D23 in August 2024. Brad Bird is writing the screenplay and producing and Elemental filmmaker Peter Sohn is directing. This is the first we’re hearing about Coco 2 (that pic grossed over $823M worldwide). The first 2001 Monsters Inc. and its 2013 sequel Monsters University grossed together $1.3 billion at the global box office.
Admits Docter in the piece, “I probably overindexed on, ‘Do whatever you want.’”
In addition, the piece also reports, “Current and former employees say one of the biggest reasons is that the conflict-averse Docter encouraged new directors to make autobiographical movies that too many audience members struggled to connect with.”
