Why Is the Toy Story Franchise so Successful

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• Christine Clark - [email protected]

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The fifth Toy Story installment recently surpassed over $1 billion at the box office making it the highest-grossing film of 2026. It is the only animated franchise with three consecutive sequels crossing the $1 billion mark globally. The original Toy Story debuted in 1995 and many of the original child viewers are now introducing the films to their own children. So what is the secret behind the franchise's enduring appeal? We sat down with media industries expert, Shawna Kidman. In this Q&A, the associate professor of communication at the University of California San Diego School of Social Sciences explains why the franchise has earned it so much acclaim and so many ticket sales over so many years.

Q: Toy Story has been a cultural phenomenon for 30 years. What explains its lasting success?

A: It's easy to point to the quality of the films-and they are exceptionally well made-but that's only part of the story. There are many films that are well written and feature talented voice actors, animators, and directors. What makes Toy Story different is that it's had all the building blocks of a franchise from the beginning.

The films do "world building" - like Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter-they build a really cohesive, interesting world with its own logic and lore, which allows for lots of characters to convincingly live in it. It also creates space for an infinite number of stories, but unlike Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings, which are franchises that kind of came to an end because they were written by authors, this is a corporate franchise. So they're not actually restrained by authorial intent or desire. Because Disney owns the intellectual property, the company can continue expanding the world in new directions, even as directors and creative teams change over time.

Toy Story became the quintessential model for Disney's franchise strategy...the template for how the company approached franchises in the future, everything from Marvel and Star Wars to its broader entertainment strategy. Shawna Kidman, associate professor of communication at the University of California San Diego School of Social Sciences

The most interesting fact to me is that Toy Story became the quintessential model for Disney's franchise strategy.

We think of Disney as always having franchises, right? But until 20 years ago, it was not a franchise movie company. All it ever did was release standalone animated films and make direct-to-video movies for kids. Toy Story was the way forward. Disney bought Pixar in 2006, after Toy Story 1 and 2 were big hits and fast-tracked Toy Story 3, which ended up making over a billion dollars at the box office (only the 9th film to cross that threshold). But movie tickets were just the beginning. Disney estimated the film's value at nearly ten billion dollars because the movie attracted audiences across platforms-it worked as short films, video games, theme park attractions, actual toys, other merchandise, and more. And, the Toy Story universe could keep growing, adding new characters and new stories for as long as Disney wanted.

So it became the template for how the company approached franchises in the future, everything from Marvel and Star Wars to its broader entertainment strategy.

Read more news about: School of Social Sciences

The Disney store entrance on Champs-Elysees avenue in Paris in 2019. Kidman explains how the movies are popular around the globe, as toyrs are universal. Whether you're in San Diego, Seoul, or Paris, nearly everyone has cherished a favorite toy. That shared experience makes the Toy Story universe instantly familiar-helping the franchise connect with audiences across generations and cultures. Credit: daboost/iStock.