Toy Story 5 eyes $160 million opening for 2026 record

Toy Story 5 opened with a box-office forecast that puts Disney’s most durable animated franchise back at the center of Hollywood’s sequel economy. The film was eyeing $160 million to $170 million domestically, a level that would top every other opening weekend of 2026 and clear the previous Toy Story benchmark by a wide margin.

That scale matters because the series has been built on more than nostalgia. Disney and Pixar positioned the new film around a clean generational hook: “Toy meets Tech.” Pixar’s official synopsis says Bonnie’s world is flipped upside down by Lilypad, a tablet device with its own ideas about what kids need most. Woody, voiced by Tom Hanks, Buzz Lightyear, voiced by Tim Allen, and Jessie, voiced by Joan Cusack, are back in the story, alongside Greta Lee as Lilypad and Conan O’Brien as Smarty Pants.

The opening weekend forecast also underscores how far the franchise has travelled since the original Toy Story, which Pixar says was released on November 22, 1995, as the world’s first computer-animated feature film. Box Office Mojo lists Toy Story 4 with a $120,908,065 opening and Toy Story 3 with $110,307,189, which means a $160 million debut would reset expectations for what an animated sequel can still command in theaters.

Disney has made sure the launch feels bigger than a standard release. The company previewed Toy Story 5 at Destination D23 and D23, where Pixar screened the opening three minutes for fans and outlined the new characters and cast. Additional voice talent includes Craig Robinson, Mykal-Michelle Harris, Shelby Rabara, Matty Matheson and Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, known as Bad Bunny, expanding the film’s reach beyond the core ensemble.

The rollout also reflects Disney’s broader strategy of pairing tentpole entertainment with goodwill. The company has tied Toy Story 5 to children’s hospital and charity initiatives with Starlight Children’s Foundation, including work with more than 300 children’s hospitals in the United States and children’s hospitals worldwide. In a summer crowded with sequels, Toy Story 5 has become a referendum on whether families will still turn out in force for a familiar brand, especially when the brand is updated to meet the tech-savvy anxieties of today’s kids and parents.