Things are looking mighty good for Pixar’s “Toy Story 5,” which had a $17.5M Thursday preview. That’s a franchise record and a 2026-best for Thursday previews. It’s the second-highest ever for an animated film, behind “Incredibles 2” ($18.5M). “Tot Story 5” already has $70M in pre-sales for the upcoming weekend.
I’m now going to predict a $180M+ weekend—it could potentially surpass the current animation record holder, also “Incredibles 2” ($182.5M). With strong audience scores, it’s poised to dominate for several weeks and may even prevent “Supergirl” from reaching #1 next weekend.
With a worldwide tally that should hit $300M+ by Sunday night, this film will easily hit the $1 billion mark, and then some, by the end of its run — only one other movie this year has hit that milestone, “Super Mario Galaxy Movie,” with “Michael” ($937M) inching closer by the day.
Despite my mixed feelings about this film, and its status as the least well-reviewed entry in the franchise (72 on Metacritic), I can’t help but feel a glow at how much the box office has been booming this year, with hit after hit—not just sequels, but also non-sequels and original stories capturing cultural attention. It’s great to see.