‘Toy Story 5’ Heading To Franchise Record At Thursday Night Box Office - Deadline

FRIDAY AFTERNOON UPDATE: Disney/Pixar‘s Toy Story 5 is not only bound for the biggest opening of the year, but potentially the the largest over the last two years with a Friday-Sunday of $160M-$170M+ in U.S./Canada after a Friday that’s growing with more than $71M at 4,425 theaters. That figure, of course, includes last night’s $17.5M franchise best and YTD previews. We’ll wait for this opening to settle before we start placing it among best animated and Pixar openings. The tricky factor is how big today is and figuring out what tomorrow is. Sources believe that Saturday will be -20% or less from today’s box office plus previews. As we mentioned, forecasts were wild for Toy Story 4 heading into the weekend with $160M. It simmered down to $120.9M which was a franchise best and still damn good. As the old tracking excuse goes, sometimes it’s hard to forecast these $100M+ openers given the small sample with precision. blogherads.adq.push(function () { blogherads .defineSlot( 'medrec', 'gpt-dsk-tab-mid-article1-uid0' ) .setTargeting( 'pos', ) .setTargeting( 'viewable', 'yes' ) .setSubAdUnitPath("ros\/mid-article") .addSize(,,,,,,,,]) .exemptFromSleep() .setClsOptimization("minsize") ; }); Best opening of 2025 was A Minecraft Movie with $162.7M and previews/first Friday of $57.1M. The best opening of 2024, and the last biggie, was Deadpool & Wolverine at $211.4M. Watch on Deadline if ( !window.pmc.harmony?.isEventAdScheduledTime() ) { pmcCnx.cmd.push(function() { pmcCnx({ settings: { plugins: { pmcAtlasMG: { iabPlcmt: 2, } } }, playerId: '32fe25c4-79aa-406a-af44-69b41e969e71', playlistId: '0199e506-e642-7728-8264-463efe71337b', }).render("connatix_contextual_player_div"); }); } else { // This should only be get called when page cache is not cleared and it's event time. window.pmc.harmony?.switchToHarmonyPlayer(); } RelishMix measures the social media reach before opening for the Andrew Stanton directed movie at 711.8M across Tik Tok, Instagram, X, Facebook and YouTube which is higher than 2022’s Minions: The Rise of Gru (668.4M) and The Incredibles 2 (687M). YouTube views at 341M are higher than Kung Fu Panda 4‘s 172M and Rise of Gru‘s 220M. Reports RelishMix, “The Taylor Swift music effect brings 538M fans with all of her social channels activated and pushing materials, especially her song “I Knew It, I Knew You”. Tim Allen is the only cast who’s activated with reach at 160K, with the Hanks social network of 34.9M which has yet to activate on the film.” Expounds the social media analytics firm in their latest report: “Convo runs positive for Toy Story 5 as Pixar discovers the most effective millennial marketing strategy ever invented: Remind adults they are old now and hand them an emotional support cowboy. The tech-versus-toys angle lands hard with parents and older Gen Z, creating a surprisingly thoughtful emotional hook instead of just nostalgia bait. A huge portion of chatter frames the film as a generational handoff movie in the same emotional lane as Toy Story 3, while others compare the evolving themes to the maturity jump in Cars 3. Fans also respond strongly to Woody and Buzz reuniting, with the trailer triggering emotional memory recall more than spectacle. ‘This almost made me cry. I’m 32 years old and the feeling this gave me was amazing’ and ‘I’ll be 27 when Toy Story 5 comes out and now I have two small children to take to the cinema.’ The ‘iPad kid’ commentary unexpectedly becomes the trailer’s breakout conversation driver, positioning the film as culturally relevant rather than purely nostalgic. ‘At first I thought ugh not another Toy Story but the plot is perfect, raise awareness on iPad babies.’ Even skeptical viewers soften once the emotional themes kick in. ‘I thought this was gonna feel like a soulless cash grab sequel but I like the traditional play versus tech angle” and “This feels like it’s going back to its roots.'” blogherads.adq.push(function () { blogherads .defineSlot( 'medrec', 'gpt-dl-mid-article-inject2-uid1' ) .setTargeting( 'pos', ) .setTargeting( 'viewable', 'yes' ) .setSubAdUnitPath("ros\/mid-article2") .addSize(,,,,,]) .exemptFromSleep() .setClsOptimization("minsize") ; }); Leviticus (NEON) 1,076 theaters, Fri $1.5M 3-day $3.85M/Wk 1 Death of Robin Hood (A24) 1,782 theaters, Fri $1M, 3-day $2.75M/Wk 1 Girls Like Girls (For) 504 theaters, Fri $900K, 3-day $2M/Wk 1 UPDATED AFTER EXCLUSIVE: Toy Story 5 previews are at $17.5 million, not only the best for the franchise but also the second best ever for Pixar as well as any animated movie, and the best 2026 year-to-date. The Rotten Tomatoes audience score is at a very healthy 93%, just under the 94% of Toy Story 4 and Inside Out 2. The top five previews of all time for an animated movie at the domestic box office are Incredibles 2 ($18.5M, $182.6M 3-day opening), Toy Story 5, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse ($17.4M, $120.7M), Moana 2 ($13.8M Tuesday previews, $140M 3-day) and Inside Out 2 ($13M, $154.2M).