Disney reached an important milestone this week when it became the first Hollywood studio to cross the $3B mark in worldwide box office sales in 2026. The studio had a tremendous start to this year thanks to strong grosses from holdover films released at the end of 2025, including ZOOPTOPIA 2 and AVATAR 3: FIRE & ASH. The party continued with successful new releases in 2026 including HOPPERS, THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA 2, and TOY STORY 5.
Exhibitors are cheering Disney’s return to the leading position at the box office, playing an outsized role in what looks on track to be the best performance since the pandemic. The record-breaking opening of TOY STORY 5 boosted the 2026 box office to 15% higher than it stood at this same point in 2025. Strong contributions from Disney’s releases have been a key reason for this improvement. Disney has more to look forward to with the live-action MOANA and AVENGERS: DOOMSDAY yet to come out. It seems certain that Disney will wind up at the end of the year as the highest grossing studio in 2026.
Disney has also been keen to support movie theatres, with its head of theatrical distribution Andrew Cripps stating at his presentation at this week’s CineEurope conference saying that his company provides exhibitors with the longest theatrical windows of any of the major studios. After losing its top spot as the highest-grossing studio to Universal in 2023, Disney has returned to its role as the leading contributor to theatrical releasing.
