‘Toy Story 5’ Has A Best Friend At The Box Office: $160M U.S. Opening Reps Record For Franchise, Best YTD – Update
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- Toy Story 5 opened to $160M domestically, the best opening of 2026, a franchise record, and the second-best animated opening ever behind Pixar's own Incredibles 2 ($182.6M); the $312M global start (ex-China) is the studio's second-best ever.
- Disney is claiming the like-for-like best global opening of 2026 once Universal's Super Mario Galaxy Movie's midweek previews are backed out ($302M vs. Toy Story 5's $312M for the comparable window).
- Taylor Swift's "I Knew It, I Know You" debuted at #1 on the Hot 100 ahead of opening, a late-breaking marketing beat that drove 26% of the audience to be women under 25; the film holds a 95% Rotten Tomatoes score and its fourth A CinemaScore.
- Premium formats drove 31% of U.S. ticket sales, with IMAX's $18.4M global opening ranking as the exhibitor's fifth-best worldwide 3-day for an animated film and posting an 8% share — the franchise's best, ahead of Toy Story 4's 5%.
- The audience shifted more Latino/Hispanic (23% to 30% between Toy Story 4 and 5) and more mom-heavy (72% moms vs. 28% dads, up from 58/42 in part 4), per PostTrak; women overall outnumbered men 57% to 43%.
- Global partnerships generated $200M in media value — the biggest in franchise history and ahead of Inside Out 2 and Zootopia 2 — anchored by Porsche, Adidas, Kellogg's, AT&T, and Papa John's, with media spots running through July 4.
- 2026's summer box office stands at $1.85B through June 21, -1.1% behind 2019 but +16% over last year, framing the result as the rebound Pixar needed after post-Covid openers Lightyear ($50.5M), Elemental ($29.6M), and Elio ($20.8M) underperformed.
Why it matters: Toy Story 5's $160M domestic / $312M global opening validates Disney's $200M-media-value, Taylor-Swift-anchored push to put Pixar back in theaters after Lightyear, Elemental, and Elio all opened below $51M — and the 31% premium-format share plus a 72% mom audience shows the franchise now monetizes harder per viewer while reaching a broader demo.
