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The Second Biggest Opening Weekend of 2025

Toy Story 5 did not have the biggest opening weekend of 2025. That honor currently belongs to The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, which stormed into theaters earlier this year and has already crossed the $1 billion mark globally, making it the highest-grossing film of the year so far.

But coming in as the second-biggest opening weekend of 2025 is no small feat, especially given how competitive the current theatrical landscape has become. The fact that an animated Pixar film is sitting comfortably in that elite company says a great deal about the enduring power of the Toy Story brand.

Disney and Pixar's Rocky Road to This Moment

To fully appreciate what this opening weekend means, you need to understand the context. Disney and Pixar have had a genuinely turbulent few years at the box office. Several high-profile releases failed to connect with audiences the way the studio's golden-era classics once did.

Elio, Pixar's alien adventure film, was a notable disappointment, struggling to find its footing both critically and commercially. Lightyear, the Toy Story spin-off that reimagined Buzz Lightyear as a live-action-style sci-fi epic, puzzled audiences and underperformed significantly at the box office.

Even outside of Pixar, Disney's broader theatrical slate has had its struggles. The Mandalorian and Grogu, the big-budget Star Wars theatrical spin-off featuring fan-favorite characters from the Disney+ series, has so far failed to double its $165 million production budget. For a franchise with the cultural weight of Star Wars, that is a sobering result.

These stumbles have fueled ongoing conversations about whether Disney has lost its magic touch, whether audiences are suffering from superhero and franchise fatigue, and whether the studio's aggressive push into streaming via Disney+ has cannibalized its own theatrical audience.

The Bigger Picture: Hollywood's Post-Pandemic Box Office Struggle

Disney and Pixar's recent challenges do not exist in a vacuum. The entire film industry has been grappling with a fundamental shift in audience behavior since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Overall global box office revenues have declined compared to pre-pandemic peaks. Studios across the board have struggled to consistently draw audiences back into theaters when so much content is available at home through streaming services like Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max, and others.

Big-budget blockbusters, which were once essentially guaranteed money-makers due to their spectacle value, have been among the hardest hit. Films with nine-figure production budgets are now regularly underperforming, and the risk calculus for studios has shifted dramatically.

In this environment, a $300 million-plus opening weekend is not just good news for Toy Story 5. It is genuinely encouraging news for the entire theatrical exhibition business. It proves that when the right film comes along, people will still show up in massive numbers to watch it together on a big screen.