‘Toy Story 5’ Shows Hollywood Is Still Not Releasing Enough Kids Movies
Get the Culture newsletter
Daily culture — film, music, books, the trends and ideas worth your attention. Free.
- Toy Story 5 opened to $160M domestic and $312M worldwide — the biggest debut of 2026 and the second-largest animated domestic opening ever, behind only "Incredibles 2" ($182.7M), ranking 24th among all-time domestic opening weekends
- Pixar and parent Disney frame the success as evidence of an underserved market: 2022 was the most recent year when no family films landed in the annual domestic Top 10, and a typical year sees only three or four make the cut
- A crowded family-film pipeline follows, with Universal's "Minions & Monsters" opening July 1, Disney's live-action "Moana" on July 10 (tracking for an $80–90M debut), and August releases including "PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie" and "Coyote vs. Acme"
- Earlier 2026 family titles including Pixar's "Hoppers" and Sony Pictures Animation's "GOAT" outperformed expectations, helping push year-to-date domestic box office to $4.4B — 14.2% ahead of 2025
- Each prior Toy Story installment has grossed more than the last at the global box office, with "Toy Story 4" clearing $1B on strong international returns, and the source notes the fifth entry is positioned to potentially join that club
- Alan Bergman, Chairman of Disney Entertainment Studios, credited filmmakers Andrew Stanton, Kenna Harris, and Lindsey Collins, along with the Pixar team, for the franchise's biggest-ever debut
Why it matters: For Disney and rival studios, a 24th-best domestic opening weekend lands at a moment when year-to-date domestic box office sits at $4.4B — up 14.2% over 2025 — while the 2026 calendar stacks at least eight family films from July onward, suggesting the industry is finally expanding supply into a demand lane that 2022's empty Top 10 had laid bare.
Ask SkimNews
