This 31-Year-Old Franchise Is Dominating Streaming After Breaking Box Office Records

By Anthony Lund Jun 25th, 2026, 12:15 pm

Despite some Disney fans arguing that the franchise should have ended as a trilogy, Toy Story 5 has seen the toys running the box office and the streaming charts at the same time.

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Toy Story 5 opened with $160 million domestically over its debut weekend, the largest opening of the year and the biggest in the franchise’s history. The huge haul easily smashed the $120 million taken by Toy Story 4 in 2019, and, adding in a healthy $152 million haul from overseas, the $312 million global total is one of the biggest opening weekends ever for an animated movie and certainly Pixar’s most impressive this decade.

Of course, box office dominance is only one aspect of modern movie releases, and the new film has catapulted the entire Toy Story franchise to the top of the Disney+ worldwide streaming chart according to Flix Patrol. As Toy Story 5 hit cinemas, a two-minute “special look” at the movie debuted at No. 1 on the platform, with the four previous films occupying slots in the top six. The only movie spoiling a clean top-five sweep of Disney+ right now is recent release Hoppers, which has been holding its own against Woody, Buzz and Co.

(L-R): Jessie, Buzz Lightyear, and Woody in Disney and Pixar’s TOY STORY 5. Photo courtesy of Pixar. © 2026 Disney/Pixar. All Rights Reserved.

The Toys Are Back in Town

Toy Story 5 was announced as part of a wave of new sequels to classic Disney and Pixar movies, which also included Frozen 3 and Zootopia 2. Many people were not convinced that there was a need for another movie in the franchise that began with the ground-breaking original in November 1995. 2019’s Toy Story 4 received a similar reaction, as many fans of the franchise felt that there was nothing capable of bettering the “perfect” conclusion of Toy Story 3.

The fourth movie managed to avoid disappointing fans and became the type of box office juggernaut that, seven years later, Disney would kill to have on a regular basis from their animated originals. The reviews remained high, the total franchise box office was pushed beyond $3 billion, and it seemed that the gamble had paid off. Attempting to do that all over again with Toy Story 5 was an even bigger risk, and even though reviews have slipped a little, the film is still a massive success with both critics and audiences.

Toy Story 5 is directed by Pixar veteran Andrew Stanton, who previously helmed Finding Nemo and WALL-E, and sees the return of Tom Hanks, Tim Allen and the rest of the core cast that has made the Toy Story franchise one of the biggest and most loved in movie history. The new movie brings the toys back together to face yet another challenge of being a child’s plaything in a modern world. After previously fending off bullies, family pets, pre-schoolers and other toys that just don’t want to play nice, this time around Woody and the gang are faced with the anxiety of losing their relevance at a time when a snazzy smart tablet by the name of Lilypad is the new Buzz Lightyear.

Toy Story 5 Looks Set to Be Disney’s Next $1B Blockbuster

The magic of Toy Story 5 has won over critics, with the movie holding a 93% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes at the time of writing. The film also pulled in a solid “A” CinemaScore from its opening-weekend audiences. Topping box office charts around the world and easily pushing Steven Spielberg’s alien outing Disclosure Day into second place, Toy Story 5 makes it clear that Pixar sequels remain a force to be reckoned with — continuing the run led by Inside Out 2 and Zootopia 2, which brought in totals of $1.69 billion and $1.86 billion respectively.

Toy Story 5‘s impressive opening tally has put it well on the way to ending its run as part of the $1 billion club, an elite gang that has been joined by only 14 movies since 2020. Half of that list belongs to Disney or one of its brands and includes last year’s Lilo & Stitch and 2024’s unexpected Moana 2. Toy Story 5 will likely become Disney’s ninth $1 billion hit since the Covid pandemic and will almost certainly be joined by Spider-Man: Brand New Day and Avengers: Doomsday, making 2026 another year of Disney domination.

Toy Story 5 is in cinemas now, while previous movies and shorts from the franchise are available to stream on Disney+.