The return of Woody, Buzz and the playroom gang is heading for big box-office numbers, according to Deadline. Disney-Pixar’s Toy Story 5 is projected to score a U.S. opening total of $150 million when it debuts in theaters on Friday, June 19. The pic was ranked as the No. 1 most-anticipated movie of this summer by Fandango’s 2025 trends study. Tickets are on sale now.

If the prediction comes true, TS5 will be the film franchise’s biggest domestic debut since Toy Story 4 ($120.9M), which was released pre-COVID in 2019, and will overtake Universal/Illumination/Nintendo’s The Super Mario Galaxy Movie ($131.7M over three days) as the biggest opening of 2026 to date. The $150M figure is pulled from three-week tracking; similar methods overestimated the launch total for TS4.

A great deal of Toy Story 5‘s pull is the strong track record and broad fanbase for the 31-year-old Pixar franchise. Moviegoer surveys show the quinquel is polling as a first choice for women and men under 25, with overall first choice ratings in all quadrants surpassing those of TS4 and Inside Out 2 ($154.2M, 2024), but slightly below The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. 

Disney-Pixar hold the record for biggest domestic box office opening with 2018’s Incredibles 2, which pulled $182.6M in its debut weekend and currently ranks No. 8 on the all-time global highest grossing animated pics list (No. 7 excluding the photoreal Lion King remake, No. 6 further refined for MPA titles only). Disney and Pixar hold eight out of the top 10 spots for MPA animated feature titles, led by last year’s Zootopia 2, which grossed $1.87 billion. Chinese blockbuster Ne Zha 2 (2025) is tops overall with $2.2B.

Toy Story 5 is directed by Academy Award winner Andrew Stanton (WALL•E, Finding Nemo, Finding Dory), co-directed by Kenna Harris (Ciao Alberto), produced by Lindsey Collins (Turning Red, WALL•E, Finding Dory), and features an original score by Academy Award winner Randy Newman, who has scored all five Toy Story films.

Synopsis: The toys are back in Disney and Pixar’s Toy Story 5, and this time it’s Toy meets Tech. Woody (voice of Tom Hanks), Buzz Lightyear (voice of Tim Allen), Jessie (voice of Joan Cusack) and the rest of the gang’s jobs are challenged when they come face-to-face with Lilypad (voice of Greta Lee), a brand-new tablet device that arrives with her own disruptive ideas about what is best for their kid, Bonnie. Will playtime ever be the same?

[Source: Deadline]