{"id":182824,"date":"2025-12-13T16:17:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-13T16:17:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/182824\/"},"modified":"2025-12-13T16:17:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-13T16:17:10","slug":"has-2026s-highest-grossing-movie-already-been-decided","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/182824\/","title":{"rendered":"Has 2026\u2019s Highest-Grossing Movie Already Been Decided?"},"content":{"rendered":"

While 2025 wasn’t the box office<\/a> savior that many had hoped, there’s reason to be more optimistic about 2026. Next year’s calendar is a fearsome collection of potential blockbusters, many of them packed into a truly crowded summer season. Major franchises like Star Wars, Toy Story, and Spider-Man are back in theaters. Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey and Steven Spielberg’s return to big-budget sci-fi are already building hype. Greta Gerwig’s Narnia will play in IMAX screens over Thanksgiving, and Dune: Part 3 and Avengers: Doomsday will release on the same day<\/a> in December. <\/p>\n

But how big can a post-COVID year really be? We’re a couple of weeks from the end of 2025 and Zootopia 2 is only now about to give Hollywood its second $1 billion grosser, with Avatar: Fire & Ash virtually certain to follow<\/a>. There are several movies next year that would’ve been expected to cross that milestone pre-pandemic, but it’s unclear whether there’s room for all of them to succeed on that scale. Picking which of them will end up the highest-grossing film feels almost impossible.<\/p>\n

Except, some early tracking data may have spoiled the answer.<\/p>\n

Toy Story 5 Is Looking Like 2026’s Biggest Movie<\/p>\n

\"Buzz
\n Buzz Lightyear flying in Toy Story 4<\/p>\n

Greenlight Analytics<\/a>‘ TheQuorum engages in pre-release tracking by regularly surveying 2000 people on their awareness of and interest in upcoming releases. Those scores fluctuate as a film’s release date approaches, and as its marketing campaign unfolds. Of the 72 movies that were part of the latest batch of results, for example, Avatar: Fire & Ash has the highest awareness score at 73%. In July, just before its trailer dropped, it was at 47%. Avatar’s current interest score is 54% \u2013 good for second-best.<\/p>\n

Toy Story 5 is in first with 59%. The average for an animation\/family film at this six-month distance from its release date is 40%. Its 56% awareness score, more than double average, puts it #5 overall and just above Anaconda, which releases in just two weeks. Disney has barely started its promo for it, and already it’s tracking above The Mandalorian & Grogu (30%), The Odyssey (33%), The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping (43%), and The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (45%) in this category. <\/p>\n

But most telling is that its theater score, which indicates the percentage of respondents who would prefer to see a given movie in theaters instead of at home, is 51%. It’s the highest of all 72 movies; Avatar: Fire & Ash, which is very likely going to earn $2 billion worldwide and offers a special 3D experience that can’t be replicated on one’s couch, is at 49%. <\/p>\n

That doesn’t guarantee Toy Story 5 will gross over $2 billion, but it does mean Pixar’s upcoming sequel<\/a> is an absolute juggernaut. Spielberg’s new sci-fi film releases the week before it, Supergirl the week after, and Minions 3 a week after that. That’s some pretty serious competition. But this tracking data suggests Toy Story is the one to be afraid of. <\/p>\n

Toy Story 3 and 4 both just cracked $1 billion, and the expectation will be that this one does, too. But what if Inside Out 2’s $1.6 billion<\/a> is the better comp? We could be looking at the new all-time record holder for an American animated film, and if that happens, it’s very possible Woody and Buzz end up holding down the top spot for this impressive year.<\/p>\n

\"Toy<\/p>\n

Release Date<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJune 19, 2026<\/p>\n

Director<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAndrew Stanton<\/p>\n

Writers<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAndrew Stanton<\/p>\n

\"Headshot<\/p>\n

\"Headshot<\/p>\n

Tim Allen<\/p>\n

\n Buzz Lightyear (voice)\n <\/p>\n

\"Headshot<\/p>\n

Joan Cusack<\/p>\n

\n Jessie (voice)\n <\/p>\n

\"Headshot<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While 2025 wasn’t the box office savior that many had hoped, there’s reason to be more optimistic about…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":182825,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[146,85,46,397],"class_list":["post-182824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182824\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/182825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}