ENTERTAINMENT'Toy Story 5' Mania: How Disney and Pixar's Marketing Blitz Helped Fuel a Record Opening
‘Toy Story 5’ opened to record-breaking box office numbers.
June 25 2026, Published 9:30 a.m. ET
Toy Story 5 did not open like another sequel. It opened like a summer event that had been carefully planted in cereal aisles, Super Bowl spots, baseball promotions, phone ads, luxury car reveals and Taylor Swift playlists before audiences ever reached the theater.
Disney and Pixar’s latest installment drew 11.5 million domestic moviegoers over opening weekend, a $160 million box office, making it the biggest opening of the year so far and the best start in Toy Story franchise history. The film also posted $152 million internationally, for a $312 million global launch.
The Box Office Goes Big
The sequel drew strong audiences across major states.
The $160 million domestic debut put Toy Story 5 behind only Incredibles 2 among animated openings stateside. It also topped Toy Story 4’s $120.9 million launch in 2019 and became the third-biggest June opening ever, behind Jurassic World and Incredibles 2.
Audiences showed up early and often. Deadline reported 64% of Saturday’s audience saw the film before 5 p.m., with Los Angeles, New York, Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston and Chicago leading domestic admissions.
The Swift Effect
Taylor Swift’s involvement boosted attention before release.
One of the campaign’s late jolts came from Taylor Swift, whose song “I Knew It, I Know You” debuted at No. 1 on the Hot 100 before the movie opened. The release was also capped by a social media moment at the Hollywood premiere.
That crossover likely helped broaden the opening beyond families alone, with women under 25 making up 26% of the domestic audience.
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A Franchise Everywhere at Once
Disney and Pixar launched a massive global marketing campaign to promote the movie.
Disney’s promotional push reached far beyond trailers. Toy Story 5 reportedly had $200 million in global promotional media value, the biggest partnership haul in franchise history and larger than Inside Out 2 and Zootopia 2.
Kellogg’s brought back toys inside cereal boxes, featuring Woody, Buzz Lightyear and Jessie, while a Papa Johns pizza promotion leaned into movie-night nostalgia.
Porsche revealed three one-of-one customized 911 models inspired by those same characters, with the cars tied to a charitable initiative supporting Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, the American Red Cross and Starlight Children’s Foundation.
Major brand partnerships expanded the film’s reach.
AT&T and Pixar created a custom animated commercial with Bonnie and the Toy Story 5 characters, extending the campaign into stores, merchandise and community screenings.
Disney also placed Toy Story characters inside ESPN’s Super Bowl marketing activity and partnered with Major League Baseball on an activation featuring Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts and his daughter Kynlee.
The result was a record opening that proved Toy Story 5 arrived already everywhere.
