Buzz and Woody Have Officially Been Replaced by Another Toy

Buzz and Woody are some of the most well-known toys in the world, but even they can be replaced. What will happen now with Toy Story 5?

Back in 1995, Tom Hanks and Tim Allen debuted what would become one of their most iconic respective roles. From Walt Disney Pictures and Pixar Animation Studios, John Lasseter’s Toy Story (1995) was hugely popular and spawned a billion-dollar franchise.

Hanks and Allen voiced the lead roles of Sheriff Woody and Space Ranger Buzz Lightyear, respectively, who were joined by an array of colorful characters as human Andy’s favorite childhood toys. The CGI-animated Toy Story was later followed by Toy Story 2 (1999), Toy Story 3 (2010), and Toy Story 4 (2019). Pixar’s Toy Story spinoff, Lightyear (2022), starring Chris Evans, was released last year and became a box office bomb.

The Walt Disney Company’s woes at the box office continued with Strange World (2022). The Jake Gyllenhaal-led story of the Clade family explorers grossed just $73 million globally and was cited as being disastrous for Disney. The problems in Disney’s animation spurred returning CEO Bob Iger to announce the return of three popular franchises — Frozen, Zootopia, and Toy Story. Interestingly, all three performed exceptionally well at the box office, taking over a billion dollars whether as a single film or as a series.

With Toy Story 3 wrapping up Andy’s (John Morris) story with his toys, and Toy Story 4 setting them on a new adventure with Bonnie (Madeleine McGraw), it is not known how Disney and Pixar will deal with Toy Story 5. Both Buzz and Woody are set to return, with Chief Creative Officer of Pixar, Pete Docter saying the sequel will be “surprising” with “cool things [audiences] have never seen before.”

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But while fans await the return of Buzz and Woody in the fifth movie of the Toy Story franchise, another toy has replaced the sheriff and space ranger as the most lucrative toy in town during an opening weekend.

After months and months of hype, Greta Gerwig’s Barbie (2023) has finally hit movie theaters across the world. Backed by an impressive marketing campaign and making pink the color of the summer, Barbie has dominated pop culture ever since the first teaser trailer dropped late last year.

Margot Robbie (Barbie) and Ryan Gosling (Ken) lead the impressive A-list cast, and it seems Barbie fever has gone into orbit. The Warner Bros. Pictures and Mattel Films-produced movie has gone on to deliver a massive, larger-than-expected $337 million worldwide in its opening weekend. Gerwig’s film has bested its friendly competitor Oppenheimer (2023), which opened with $174 million globally.

Many will have heard the term “Barbenheimer” during the past months, and it seems their adjacent releases on the same weekend have worked in both movies’ favor. The Christopher Nolan-helmed 3-hour epic depicts the story of the creation of the atomic bomb, and it is this contrast of topic and style that has made this past weekend so memorable for moviegoers.

And with Barbie‘s stunning display at the global box office, the classic doll toy has replaced Buzz and Woody in terms of opening weekend performance.

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Back in 2019, and on the very same weekend (June 21), Toy Story 4 opened with a global take of $244.5 million, over $100 million less than what Barbie did this past weekend. Domestically, Barbie also beat out the toy franchise by $35 million, taking $155 million vs. Toy Story 4‘s $120 million.

And this is not only huge in terms of the characters themselves, but Toy Story 4 was the third sequel to Disney and Pixar Animation Studios’ billion-dollar franchise, whereas Barbie is standing on its own merit in the movie world. Toy Story 4 went on to take $1.073 billion total, and it’s a wonder whether Barbie could also go this far.

There is also the difference between live-action and animation; Barbie will land on the former’s highest-grossing opening list, while Toy Story 4 is situated in the latter, being a CGI-animated movie. But in terms of the toy-centric tales of both, Barbie has firmly squashed the sheriff and space ranger.

With Buzz and Woody being some of, if not the, most popular fictional toys and Barbie being one of the world’s most iconic real-life toys, the action figure battle has never been more interesting and complicated. Barbie will likely join films such as The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023) as one of the highest-grossing movies of the year.

What do you think will happen in Toy Story 5? Let Inside the Magic know in the comments down below!