By Janet H. Cho
Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios' Toy Story 5 shattered already enormous expectations for its opening weekend, becoming the biggest movie debut of the year so far and notching the biggest opening for the five-part franchise.
The latest installment of the animated feature reached an estimated $160 million in domestic box office sales through Sunday and another $152.0 million internationally, delivering an estimated $312.0 million weekend worldwide, according to Rentrak.
Hollywood is tracking its one of its best summers in years, according to Rentrak's head of marketplace trends Paul Dergarabedian. Toy Story 5 "is yet another building block" for only the second $4 billion summer domestically since 2019, following the 2023 summer of "Barbenheimer," he said, referring to the dual releases of Warner Bros.' Barbie and Universal's Oppenheimer.
The summer domestic box office from May 1 through Sunday of an estimated $1.82 billion is 15.2% ahead of last summer and only 1.9% below the prepandemic summer of 2019, Rentrak said. The industry's estimated $4.46 billion in domestic box office sales so far this year are 14.2% higher than the same span in 2025.
Toy Story 5 and this weekend's other films are expected to generate an estimated $230 million weekend at the domestic box office, up 80% from the same weekend last year, when Universal Pictures' How to Train Your Dragon topped the box office with $36.6 million in its second weekend, contributing to an overall $128 million weekend haul, according to Rentrak.
Toy Story 5's ticket sales came in at the high end of expectations that ranged from $140 million to $175 million, and they easily surpassed the $131.7 million in domestic box office sales that Universal Pictures and Nintendo generated when The Super Mario Galaxy Movie opened in April.
Toy Story 5 raked in an average of $36,158 per location across 4,425 theaters, compared with Super Mario's average $30,795 per location. But Super Mario Galaxy did better internationally that weekend, and has since grossed more than $1 billion worldwide.
The buzz started building as Toy Story 5 generated $17.5 million in previews, the highest for any movie this year, and second only to Disney's Incredibles 2, which made $18.5 million in previews in June 2018, according to Variety.
The cast included Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, and Joan Cusack from the previous Toy Story films, along with Conan O'Brien and Greta Lee voicing new characters.
CinemaScore, which polls moviegoers on opening night to measure movies' appeal, gave it an "A" rating, while Rotten Tomatoes says the movie a 93% on its Tomatometer measuring film critics' reviews, and a 95% on its Popcornmeter measuring audience ratings.
"Proving that old toys can learn new tricks while reckoning with an era of endless screen time, Toy Story 5 largely sidesteps franchise fatigue by reaffirming that children everywhere still got a friend in these lovable characters," Rotten Tomatoes said of the critics' consensus. The quote is a reference to composer-songwriter Randy Newman's song, "You've Got a Friend in Me" from the first Toy Story movie in 1995. He has scored the soundtrack for all five movies, and Taylor Swift wrote a new song, "I Knew It, I Knew You," for the fifth movie.
The 11.2 million people who saw the movie over the weekend constituted 69% of the national foot traffic and 97% of the premium foot traffic, meaning on IMAX and premium large-format screens and at higher ticket prices, according to EntTelligence. Audience members were 46% male and 64% female, 33% were under age 13, and 68% were family groups.
While Toy Story and Toy Story 2 sold $363 million and $487.1 million, respectively, in cumulative global box office, Toy Story 3 and Toy Story 4 each sold about $1.07 billion worldwide, according to Rentrak.
Toy Story 5, made on a $250 million budget that doesn't include marketing costs, is widely expected to outsell its predecessors.
That doesn't include revenue from spinoffs including toys, collectible theater concessions, and a Toy Story-themed LeapFrog tablet aimed at preschoolers called Lilypad, based on the character whose addictive interface pulls children away from traditional toys.
In a distant second place this weekend was Universal's Steven Spielberg-directed Disclosure Day , a sci-fi thriller that sold $17 million in its second weekend. It has grossed $78.3 million domestically and $160.4 million globally.
In third place was Focus Features' Obsession , with another $14.2 million in its sixth weekend, and $215.8 million in domestic box office and $333.3 million worldwide.
Films opening this Friday include: Warner Bros. and DC's Supergirl, Vertical Entertainment's Couture, and Paramount's Jackass: Best and Last, followed by Universal's Minions & Monsters (opening July 1), Universal Pictures' The Odyssey (July 17), Sony Pictures' Spider-Man: Brand New Day (July 31) .
The top trailers that Toy Story 5 audiences saw were for Minions & Monsters; Disney's live action Moana, opening July 10; and Disney's Gatto, an animated crime caper opening in March 2027, according to EntTelligence.
Write to Janet H. Cho at janet.cho@dowjones.com
This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 21, 2026 14:43 ET (18:43 GMT)
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