To Infinity and the Record Books: Toy Story 5 Eyes a $14M Preview Night, the Franchise's Biggest Ever

Disney and Pixar's Toy Story 5 is projected to earn roughly $13M-$14M in opening-night previews — enough to top Toy Story 4's $12M and set a franchise record. With a 94% critical score, $25M in advance sales, and a $140M+ domestic opening forecast, the fifth film is poised for one of 2026's biggest debuts.

Toy Story 5 is barreling into theaters with history in its sights. Box office sources expect Disney and Pixar's latest to pull in roughly $13M-$14M from opening-night previews — a figure that would top Toy Story 4's $12M from 2019 and crown the biggest preview night the franchise has ever seen.

A Franchise Record Within Reach

According to box office sources, Toy Story 5 is in play for around $13M-$14M in previews — and anything above $12M sets a new franchise record. That $12M benchmark belongs to Toy Story 4, which posted it back in 2019 with previews that began at 5 p.m. in select theaters before a 6 p.m. wide break.

If the projection holds, it would also be the strongest preview night of 2026 so far, edging out Lionsgate's Michael ($12.6M), Amazon MGM Studios' Project Hail Mary ($12M) and Disney/Lucasfilm's Star Wars: Mandalorian and Grogu ($12M). One asterisk: Illumination and Universal skipped previews entirely for Super Mario Galaxy Movie, which currently owns the year's best three-day domestic opening at $131.7M.

How the Numbers Stack Up Against Pixar History

A franchise record isn't the same as a studio record. The biggest previews ever for a Pixar movie in the U.S. and Canada still belong to 2018's Incredibles 2, which opened its previews at $18.5M and also holds the weekend record for the Emeryville studio at $182.6M.

The comparison also shows how much moviegoing has changed. Back in 2010, Toy Story 3 — the franchise's billion-dollar high point — managed just $4M in previews, but that was the midnight-showtime era, before studios moved start times earlier into the evening to capture bigger preview hauls.

Strong Reviews and a Big Opening Forecast

The early signs are encouraging across the board. Toy Story 5 heads into the weekend with a 94% certified fresh critical score (no audience score yet) and roughly $25M in advance ticket sales — ahead of where Super Mario Galaxy Movie sat. Tracking points to a domestic opening of $140M-plus from 4,425 locations, with plenty of premium large-format and IMAX screens behind it. The global forecast lands around $275M, with about $135M expected from an 87% international footprint that includes China.

The Toy Story Legacy Riding On This Opening

Few franchises carry the weight that Toy Story does for Disney and Pixar. The original 1995 film was the first fully computer-animated feature ever made, and each sequel has been an event — Toy Story 3 and Toy Story 4 both crossed $1 billion worldwide, with Toy Story 4 taking home the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. This fifth chapter is directed by Andrew Stanton, the Pixar veteran behind Finding Nemo and WALL-E, with Tom Hanks, Tim Allen and Joan Cusack returning as Woody, Buzz Lightyear and Jessie. The cultural drumbeat has only gotten louder, too — Taylor Swift recently revealed she wrote and recorded a song for the film, adding star-powered buzz to an already loaded release.

What This Means for Fans

For Disney and Pixar fans, a record-setting preview night would be more than a trivia note — it's a sign that the toy box still pulls audiences out of their homes and into theaters in a streaming-first era. If the $13M-$14M projection holds and reviews translate into word of mouth, Toy Story 5 could anchor one of the biggest animated openings of the year. The first official numbers land overnight; for now, all eyes are on whether Woody and Buzz can reach infinity, and beyond, at the box office.