It’s no secret that Pixar has been having a tough go of it lately. The beloved animation studio spent the 2000s and 2010s as one of the most successful brands in Hollywood, able to consistently create original movies that were embraced by audiences and critics alike. People trusted enough in that little hopping lamp to go wherever the animators decided to take them.

The pandemic seems to have changed all that. Regardless of whether you believe that Soul, Luca, and Turning Red going straight to Disney+ hurt Pixar’s perception as a theatrical brand, general moviegoing habits have not shifted in their favor. Audiences no longer seem to approach them with the same blind faith.

Inside Out 2, a sequel to one of their most acclaimed films, was a box office smash. But Lightyear, Elemental, and this year’s Elio all showed signs of a wait-and-see approach to movie theater attendance. Elemental managed to become a sleeper hit, but the others, which didn’t generate the same positive buzz, disappointed; excluding the COVID-impacted тιтles, Elio is the studio’s lowest box office performer ever.

The rough patch has major implications I wouldn’t want to make light of – Pixar’s unique creative process and insistence on keeping their operations US-based means their films are quite expensive. Already, there have been layoffs, and reports of adjustments to the pipeline. I don’t want to see this animation insтιтution relegated to sequels and reboots only, and I hope Hoppers, releasing in March 2026, fares better.

That said, Pixar’s status as the pinnacle of Hollywood studio animation is clearly weakened, and ripe for a challenge. DreamWorks has been nipping at their heels for years, and both Puss in Boots: The Last Wish and The Wild Robot felt like steps in an exciting artistic direction for them. But there’s another challenger on the rise, and they’ve fired an official warning sH๏τ.

Sony Pictures Animation Is Coming For Pixar

On September 24, news broke that Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse was shifting its release date back a week, from June 25 to June 18, 2027. In and of itself, not so monumental a story; this kind of schedule shifting happens all the time, and the third Spider-Verse movie had bounced its release around a couple of times already. This far out, there’s no guarantee this date will stick, either.

When I read it, though, I was taken aback.

That week in June, Father’s Day Weekend, has been Pixar’s slot for years. After some later June releases in the mid-to-late 2000s, Toy Story 3 dropped on June 18, 2010, and one of their animated movies has opened around that date almost every year since. Even Luca, which went straight to streaming in the US, did so on June 18.

The release pattern is well ingrained in my memory. June 19 is my birthday and June 18 is my sister’s, so going to see whatever new Pixar movie was releasing that year became an unofficial tradition in my family. Even knowing everything the studio is going through, the idea that another animated film would step on their turf like that was shocking.

And yet, it also makes sense. The step backward puts a little distance between Spider-Verse and Shrek 5, the meme-driven engagement with which will make the Gentleminions phenomemon look quaint. Compared to Gatto, an original film by Luca director Enrico Casarosa about a cat in Venice, it’s clear which is the bigger threat.

But Spider-Verse picking that date is still undoubtedly a challenge to the status quo. The Father’s Day/Juneteenth long-weekend is a great slot for animated movies, and Sony clearly thinks this is their time to muscle into it. And why wouldn’t they? Not only is Spider-Verse one of the H๏τtest series in animation right now, but this is the same studio that brought us KPop Demon Hunters, now Netflix’s most-watched movie of all time.

Pixar, meanwhile, will need Gatto to work. Toy Story 5 is its predecessor, releasing on June 19, 2026, and that will likely be another Inside Out 2-level hit that should ease some of the financial pressure. But if there’s any hope of Pixar movies as we know and love them continuing to exist, originals have to work.

So, as wild as it feels to say it, they might blink – Gatto could be the film to move. Where it would go is tough to predict, since summer 2027 is already looking stacked. Is it better to shift backward and compete with How to Train Your Dragon 2, Star Wars: Starfighter, and Legend of Zelda, or forward, where Shrek 5, James Gunn’s Superman follow-up Man of Tomorrow, and A Minecraft Movie 2 lie in wait? A good alternative is tough to find.

If Gatto does move, regardless of where, I don’t think it can be read as anything but an admission on Disney’s part that Pixar’s time as the undisputed kings of American animation has come to an end. If it doesn’t, though, Sony has a golden opportunity to win the crown outright – and maybe keep the release date moving forward.