LOS ANGELES – “Toy Story 5” has crossed $800 million at the global box office after just three weekends of release, putting the Pixar sequel firmly on track to become the first Hollywood film of 2026 to breach the billion-dollar mark and potentially the highest-grossing installment in the 30-year-old animated franchise.
The film has now earned $381 million domestically and $427.3 million from international markets, bringing its worldwide tally to $808.6 million, according to Variety and Deadline. At this pace, it should eventually surpass 2019’s “Toy Story 4,” which finished its run at $1.07 billion and currently holds the franchise record.
The film sits as the third-biggest Hollywood release of the year, trailing only Illumination’s “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” at $1.009 billion and the Michael Jackson biopic “Michael” at $991 million. Both of those titles opened in the spring and have wound down their theatrical runs, and industry analysts widely expect “Toy Story 5” to overtake them on the global charts in the coming weeks. Germany, a major market, does not open the film until July 23, which means substantial international revenue remains untapped.
The milestone caps a theatrical run that has shattered expectations at nearly every turn. The film opened in mid-June with $160 million domestically from 4,425 theaters, the biggest opening in franchise history and a figure that eclipsed the previous record holder, “Toy Story 4,” by $40 million. Overseas, it added $152 million in its first weekend for a combined global debut of $312 million, the second-largest animated opening in history behind only “Incredibles 2” at $182.7 million domestic in 2018.
The domestic total has pushed the film past the final gross of “Finding Nemo” ($381 million), making “Toy Story 5” Pixar’s sixth highest-grossing film ever in North America. Worldwide, it now ranks as the studio’s ninth biggest release, having climbed past the lifetime earnings of “Monsters University,” “Up,” and “The Incredibles.”
The numbers are particularly striking given the film’s $250 million production budget, one of the largest ever for an animated feature. But industry analysts say the investment has already been justified by the theatrical windfall alone. The broader “Toy Story” franchise generates more than $1 billion annually in worldwide retail sales across consumer products, games, and publishing, revenue that flows independently of any new film release.
The sequel’s strong hold at the box office came even as it faced direct competition from Universal and Illumination’s “Minions and Monsters,” which briefly took the top domestic spot over the Fourth of July holiday weekend. Favorable reviews and strong word-of-mouth have kept family audiences returning. The film has maintained its appeal across key international territories including Mexico, the United Kingdom, China, France, and Australia.
Andrew Stanton, the Pixar veteran behind “Finding Nemo” and “Wall-E,” directed the film, which takes on the reality that children today are drawn to screens and devices over physical toys. The story follows Woody, Buzz Lightyear, Jessie, and the rest of the gang as their owner Bonnie becomes absorbed by her new favorite gadget, a children’s smart tablet called Lilypad. Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Annie Potts, and Keanu Reeves all reprise their voice roles.
The performance represents a significant turnaround for Pixar’s theatrical fortunes. The studio struggled at the box office in the years following the pandemic, with “Lightyear” underperforming in 2022 and several subsequent titles debuting directly on Disney+. “Toy Story 5” arrived to rapturous early reactions, and combined with the earlier success of “Hoppers,” the studio has now delivered back-to-back commercial hits that have reestablished its theatrical viability.
Disney still has several major releases remaining on its 2026 calendar, including a live-action “Moana” adaptation and “Avengers: Doomsday,” both of which carry their own billion-dollar ambitions. For now, “Toy Story 5” is the company’s unquestioned theatrical crown jewel of the year, and the question is no longer whether it will reach $1 billion, but how far past it.
