Pixar’s Toy Story 5 has opened with a franchise-best weekend, hauling in about $160 million domestically and $312 million globally, while also earning strong early review momentum indicated by a 93% Rotten Tomatoes score.
The toys are back in motion, and this time the numbers are too loud to ignore. Pixar’s Toy Story 5 has landed with a franchise-best opening weekend, outgrossing several of the studio’s weakest-performing movies within just three days.
The win couldn’t come at a more crucial moment. Pixar has had an uneven run in recent years, with multiple original films underperforming at the box office. Its last two releases before Toy Story 5—Elio and Hoppers—both fell short of the high benchmark the studio is known for setting. There was some breathing room in 2024. though: Inside Out 2 broke records to become the highest-grossing Pixar movie of all time. and it briefly held the title of the highest-grossing animated movie ever made.
Toy Story 5 arrived with clear strength on day one and then kept climbing. The film delivered a higher domestic debut than Inside Out 2 this weekend, and it’s now setting itself up for a theatrical run that, in all likelihood, could end with more than $1 billion in the bank.
Box-office momentum is being matched by early critical response. The movie opened to positive reviews and currently holds a franchise-low—but still stellar—93% score on Rotten Tomatoes. The site’s consensus frames the film as a story that “proves that old toys can learn new tricks. ” while “reckoning with an era of endless screen time.” The same consensus says Toy Story 5 “largely sidesteps franchise fatigue” and reaffirms that “children everywhere still got a friend” in its familiar characters.
The financial lift is coming fast. Produced on a reported budget of $250 million. Toy Story 5 grossed approximately $160 million domestically. a figure described as the second-biggest debut in Pixar history behind Incredibles 2’s $182 million. Internationally, it added another $152 million for a global debut of $312 million. That total lands far above Lightyear’s $226 million lifetime global haul. It’s also higher than the combined box-office haul of Pixar’s pandemic-era releases—Soul, Luca, and Turning Red.
The performance arrives at a turning point for a franchise that’s already proven it can outlast trends. The Toy Story franchise is now more than three decades old. and it has generated more than $3 billion in combined global box-office revenue. The last two installments—Toy Story 3 and Toy Story 4—both won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. The only reason the first two films didn’t win the Oscar is that the category hadn’t been introduced when they were first released.
With Toy Story 5 now in theaters and the weekend’s numbers still settling, the question for Pixar becomes less about whether audiences show up—and more about how far this particular launch can carry it.
Toy Story 5 Pixar box office debut Rotten Tomatoes Andrew Stanton Toy Story franchise Incredibles 2