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Let's hear it for the toys! Woody, Buzz and the gang are sending the summer box office to infinity and beyond.The Pixar sequel "Toy Story 5" grossed a massive $160 million domestically this weekend, according to studio estimates released on Sunday, June 21.That's the biggest three-day debut at the domestic box office in 2026 so far, surpassing the $131.7 million that "The Super Mario Galaxy Movie" collected in three days during its April opening.It's also the second-largest domestic opening weekend for any animated movie of all time. The record for biggest animated opening weekend ever is still held by a different Pixar sequel, 2018's "Incredibles 2" with $182.7 million.And "Toy Story 5" had the biggest opening of the franchise to date, surpassing "Toy Story 4," which launched with $120 million in 2019, and "Toy Story 3," which in 2010 opened with $110 million. Internationally, "Toy Story 5" grossed $152 million, giving it the year's biggest global launch with $312 million.Disney also noted "Toy Story 5" had the biggest domestic opening weekend for any movie in more than a year, since "A Minecraft Movie" in April 2025.With its fifth entry, "Toy Story" remains one of the most consistently successful and acclaimed movie franchises in Hollywood history: Every installment to date has been a huge hit financially and earned praise from critics and audiences. "Toy Story 5," which focuses on the role of tech in children's lives as the toys battle a new tablet device, is no exception.Moviegoers polled by Cinemascore gave the film an average grade of A, the same grade that "Toy Story 3" and "Toy Story 4" received. The movie was also well-reviewed among critics and is already the frontrunner to win best animated feature at the Oscars, as the previous two installments did. The Taylor Swift song "I Knew it, I Knew You," which plays during the closing credits, could also be a contender for the best original song Oscar, which would be Swift's first Academy Award nomination.The massive opening weekend leaves "Toy Story 5" well-positioned to be the biggest movie of the summer, and perhaps of 2026 as a whole, though it will soon have some competition when another animated movie aimed at families, "Minions & Monsters," hits theaters on July 1. But in 2024, the Pixar sequel "Inside Out 2" ended up being the highest-grossing movie of that year domestically after opening with $154 million, a smaller debut than "Toy Story 5.""Toy Story 5" hands Pixar another win after the studio's animated adventure "Hoppers," an original story about a girl who transfers her brain into a robotic beaver, performed well in March with a final domestic gross of $166 million. All in all, the famed animation studio has been having a much stronger year than it did in 2025, when the original Pixar sci-fi movie "Elio" became a box office disappointment and had the worst opening weekend in the studio's history by debuting to $20 million.The studio also stumbled in 2022 with "Lightyear." The "Toy Story" spinoff film was a box office misfire and finished its domestic run with $118 million, making it one of Pixar's lowest-grossing movies.Looking ahead, Pixar is set to continue balancing original movies with sequels, as it did in 2026: The studio's next two dated movies are "Gatto," an original about a black cat living in Italy that releases in March 2027, and a highly anticipated sequel: "Incredibles 3," which opens in 2028.
