This article appeared as part of the Daily Sensemaker newsletter – one story a day to make sense of the world. To receive it in your inbox, featuring content exclusive to the newsletter, sign up for free here.
Toy Story 5 has enjoyed the second best debut for a Pixar animated movie after taking $312m around the world this weekend. The $160m it made in the US and Canada is the biggest opening since A Minecraft Movie in April 2025 and caps a resurgent first half of the year for the US box office. Despite longstanding fears about the decline of cinema-going, total domestic takings are at their highest level since 2019. This is partly because of inflation, but also because the number of tickets sold is up by 7% on last year. It is unlikely that 2026 will better the late 2010s, when sales exceeded $11bn for several years on the trot, but upcoming releases such as The Odyssey, Spider-Man: Brand New Day and Moana mean it could come close.
Newsletters
Choose the newsletters you want to receive
View more
For information about how The Observer protects your data, read our Privacy Policy
