By Ben Fritz
Chris Randleman is feeling excited about the movie business for the first time since the pandemic kicked off a decade full of challenges, including theater shutdowns, Hollywood labor strikes and rising competition from streaming.
"We went through five years of pain," said the chief revenue officer of the Flix Brewhouse cinema chain. "Now we're up huge."
A resurgent year at the box office hit new heights this weekend as Disney's "Toy Story 5" opened to an estimated $312 million globally -- the second-best debut ever for a Pixar animated film.
Domestically, the sequel launched with $160 million, making it the biggest opening for any film in the U.S. and Canada since "A Minecraft Movie" in April 2025.
Many event films this year have met or exceeded the industry's lofty expectations, including "Project Hail Mary," "The Super Mario Galaxy Movie," "Michael" and "The Devil Wears Prada 2." The past few weeks have also seen two low-budget horror movies, "Backrooms" and "Obsession, " become unanticipated blockbusters.
Total domestic box office so far this year is an estimated $4.46 billion, the highest since 2019, according to Rentrak. Inflation has played a role, but not as much as growing attendance. The average adult ticket price has risen 3% from last year to $13.44 and the number of tickets sold is up 7% to 312 million, according to research firm EntTelligence.
Executives now project total domestic box office this year will come close to or exceed $10 billion. The highest postpandemic total previously was $8.9 billion in 2023. Receipts are still below the late-2010s, when total ticket sales exceeded $11 billion for five consecutive years.
Many in the industry believe they will never get back to the heights of that era, when mega-franchises like Avengers and Star Wars and Fast & Furious consistently succeeded. For the past few years, despite blockbusters like "Top Gun: Maverick" and "A Minecraft Movie," the industry has frequently gone weeks without a hit.
This summer looks different. Though it's early in the May-September season when the movie industry typically earns about 40% of its total box office for the year, most major coming releases are already selling tickets. Based on presales, expectations are huge for "Spider-Man: Brand New Day," big for "The Odyssey," and solid for other big-budget releases like "Supergirl," "Minions & Monsters" and the live-action remake of "Moana," according to people in the movie industry.
The only big budget flops of summer have been Disney's "Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu," which fell dramatically after a solid start, and Amazon.com's 1980s toy adaptation "Masters of the Universe."
Many in the industry attribute this year's boom to the fact that Hollywood has released more movies than in any year since 2019. More at-bats bring more chances for hits -- particularly unexpected ones like "Backrooms."
"The great news is it has been numerous films from different genres accounting for the success," said Michael Polydoros, chief executive of cinema marketing agency Paper Airplane.
The costs of tickets for the best screenings of IMAX movies like "The Odyssey" and December's "Dune: Part III" have reached as high as $50 -- and more on resale markets. But theaters are also pushing discounts for weekday showings and people who join loyalty programs.
Industry veterans say several factors have been drawing audiences to theaters, including uplifting stories about human cooperation ("Hail Mary"), millennial nostalgia ("Prada") and digitally native material and talent that appeal to Gen Z ("Obsession").
With the Toy Story series, Disney has displayed unusual restraint by making only a handful of sequels in the past 30 years.
Each feels like more of a special event than high-frequency franchises like Marvel and the Minions. Generation X and millennials have nostalgia for Toy Story movies they saw in their youth. The prior four movies are the most-watched film franchise on Disney+ and Toy Story consumer products generate more than $1 billion in annual sales, according to the company.
"Toy Story 5" is the only animated film currently in theaters for families. Reviews were overwhelmingly positive for the sequel about a tablet invading the world of Jessie, Woody and Buzz Lightyear.
Families made up 55% of the audience, Disney said, and opening night crowds gave it an average grade of A, according to market research firm CinemaScore.
"This feels like a franchise that people have grown up with and stuck with, but also one that's bringing in new fans," said Disney's distribution president, Andrew Cripps.
Write to Ben Fritz at ben.fritz@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 21, 2026 13:27 ET (17:27 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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