\u201cStar Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu\u201d<\/a> dropped sharply at the domestic box office after its late-May opening, bested by low-budget horror films \u201cBackrooms\u201d and \u201cObsession.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cPeople love these characters from \u2018Toy Story,\u2019 \u201d said Paul Dergarabedian, head of marketplace trends at Comscore. \u201cIt\u2019s just as appealing as ever.\u201d<\/p>\n
Indeed, across four films and 30 years, \u201cToy Story\u201d has grossed more than $3 billion worldwide. It is the most-watched franchise on Disney+, with more than 2 billion hours streamed. Woody, Buzz Lightyear and Jessie have spawned 19 theme park rides, four themed lands, two hotels and roughly $1 billion a year in global retail sales.<\/p>\n
The production budget for \u201cToy Story 5\u201d is about $150 million to $200 million. A crew of about 300 people worked on the film at Pixar\u2019s Emeryville, Calif., headquarters.<\/p>\n
For Pixar, the reliance on \u201cToy Story\u201d reflects a shift away from originals that used to be its lifeblood.<\/p>\n
February\u2019s \u201cHoppers\u201d managed a respectable $372 million worldwide, but the surer money now comes from sequels. <\/p>\n
\u201cInside Out 2\u201d grossed nearly $1.7 billion in 2024, and both \u201cToy Story 4\u201d and \u201cToy Story 3\u201d crossed $1 billion globally. <\/p>\n
Still, the franchise label is no guarantee: The 2022 spin-off \u201cLightyear\u201d stalled at $226 million worldwide after straying from the formula, recasting Buzz as an actual sci-fi hero \u2014 voiced by Chris Evans rather than Tim Allen \u2014 and sidelining Woody and the rest of the gang.<\/p>\n
\u201cToy Story 5\u201d stays closer to home but wades into new territory: the explosion of tech in everyday life. The toys must contend with Lilypad, a tablet that captures the attention of their owner, Bonnie \u2014 a premise that grew out of a tech-toy character originally written for \u201cToy Story 4\u201d and scrapped for time. Disney is betting the underlying tension is universal. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhat parent hasn\u2019t had anxiety over tech versus toys with their kids?\u201d said Andrew Cripps, head of theatrical distribution for Walt Disney Studios.<\/p>\n
Disney is betting that this universal concern will drive audiences to the film.<\/p>\n
The fifth installment also arrives with an unusually high-wattage assist: Taylor Swift wrote and performed an original song, \u201cI Knew It, I Knew You,\u201d and made a surprise appearance at last week\u2019s premiere, performing it after the credits before joining longtime franchise composer Randy Newman for \u201cYou\u2019ve Got a Friend in Me.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cIt means the world to me to be a small part of the universe of these films,\u201d Swift told the crowd.<\/p>\n
The expected blockbuster opening for \u201cToy Story 5\u201d would be a full-circle moment for the long-standing franchise; Pixar animators in 1995 hadn\u2019t even considered the possibility of a sequel while working on the first \u201cToy Story.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cThere was so much learned on that first film, specifically our iterative process,\u201d Pixar Chief Creative Officer Pete Docter said in a phone call last week from Madrid, shortly before the film\u2019s Spain premiere. \u201cA lot of things that we discovered having worked on that film have just continued to inform every movie that we make.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cToy Story\u201d revolutionized the movie business as the first computer-animated feature film. But its enduring appeal was in the bonds between the characters, Docter said.<\/p>\n
Docter, who supervised animators and helped with character design and writing on the original \u201cToy Story,\u201d added: \u201cIt certainly had some new technology, but it was really up to the story and characters to carry the audience.\u201d<\/p>\n
The franchise\u2019s longevity is also due to its ability to capture generations of fans.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving parents now that say, \u2018I grew up with \u201cToy Story,\u201d and now I\u2019m showing my kids,\u2019 has been really gratifying,\u201d Docter said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Woody, Buzz Lightyear and Jessie will be back at the box office this weekend, delivering what could be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":541480,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[263],"tags":[9867,227229,8774,1887,18,117,597,23268,10242,19,17,45214,327,29194,753,29195,10944,11980,34548,3257],"class_list":["post-541479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-box-office","tag-buzz-lightyear","tag-character","tag-disney","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-film","tag-franchise","tag-head","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-last-week","tag-movies","tag-pixar","tag-tech","tag-toy-story","tag-universal","tag-walt-disney-co","tag-woody","tag-year"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116770815803701018","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=541479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541479\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/541480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=541479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=541479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=541479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}