Walt Disney Studios today confirmed its full theatrical lineup for summer 2026, spanning four films across Pixar Animation Studios, Disney Live Action, Searchlight Pictures, and 20th Century Studios - anchored by a franchise sequel, a live-action reimagining, a cult comedy revival, and a post-apocalyptic thriller.

The announcement comes as Walt Disney Studios becomes the first studio to surpass $2 billion worldwide at the box office in 2026, a milestone built on five releases. The pace places the company ahead of any studio at this point in recent years and sets the stage for what its executives have framed as a high-volume summer season. According to The Walt Disney Company, the slate represents the breadth of its creative operations across multiple studio labels, with content targeting audiences from young children to adult genre fans.

The announcement also introduces "Disney Blockbuster Summer," a new marketing campaign the company describes as celebrating Disney as the destination for summer entertainment. The campaign promises experiences that, according to Disney, extend beyond the theatrical season through toys, fashion, theme parks, and other consumer touchpoints.

Toy Story 5: the franchise returns on June 19

The summer opens with the fifth installment in Pixar's most commercially durable franchise. Toy Story 5 arrives in theaters on June 19, directed by Academy Award winner Andrew Stanton - his fourth feature at Pixar, following Finding Nemo, WALL-E, and Finding Dory. The film is co-directed by Kenna Harris and produced by Lindsey Collins.

According to The Walt Disney Company, the film's central premise pits the established toy cast against a tablet device named Lilypad, voiced by Greta Lee. The premise - "Toy meets Tech" - frames the conflict as a generational one: a piece of consumer hardware that arrives with its own ideas about what Bonnie, the child owner, needs. Whether Lilypad is friend or antagonist is something the film appears to leave deliberately ambiguous in promotional materials.

Tom Hanks returns as Woody, Tim Allen as Buzz Lightyear, and Joan Cusack as Jessie. The returning cast is significant given the characters' history across more than three decades. The first Toy Story opened in 1995, making the franchise now over 30 years old. Toy Story 4 arrived in 2019, and this fifth entry marks the longest gap between installments in the series.

New voice talent includes Craig Robinson, Mykal-Michelle Harris, Shelby Rabara, Matty Matheson, Conan O'Brien, and Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio, professionally known as Bad Bunny. The film also features a new original song - "I Knew It, I Knew You" - by Taylor Swift, a 14-time Grammy Award-winning artist. According to Disney, the announcement of Swift's involvement was made separately on June 1, 2026, just days before the wider summer slate publication.

Randy Newman, a Disney Legend, returns to score the film. This marks his fifth Toy Story score. The franchise's musical continuity - Newman has scored all five films - is unusual in a landscape where franchise composers frequently turn over between installments.

Moana: a live-action remake on July 10

The second summer release is Disney's live-action reimagining of the 2016 animated film Moana, scheduled for July 10. The original film has remained one of the most-streamed movies on Disney+ annually over the past five years, according to Disney, and last year's Moana 2 continued that momentum following its Disney+ debut.

Catherine Laga'aia steps into the lead role of Moana. Dwayne Johnson returns as the demigod Maui, and Disney has designated Johnson as a future Disney Legend - a formal recognition the company applies to individuals it considers to have made extraordinary contributions to its brand. The designation carries significance in Disney's ecosystem, particularly given Maui's status as one of the franchise's most recognizable characters.

The film is directed by Thomas Kail, an Emmy and Tony Award winner. Music comes from Lin-Manuel Miranda, Opetaia Foa'i, and Mark Mancina - all credited on the new production. Miranda, like Johnson, is listed as a future Disney Legend. According to Disney, the film features new music rather than a direct recreation of the original's score.

The live-action Moana fits a broader pattern at Disney of remaking its animated catalog. The financial performance of recent live-action remakes has been variable - some have substantially outperformed their animated predecessors; others have fallen short. The Mandalorian and Grogu, which Disney reports opened as the number one film in the world earlier in 2026, demonstrates continued audience interest in franchise properties arriving from streaming to theatrical.

The Mandalorian and Grogu: the benchmark already set

Before the summer films release, the year's most commercially significant Disney title had already launched. Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu opened at number one globally, marking Star Wars' return to theatrical after a several-year absence. According to Disney, the film builds on The Mandalorian's position as Disney+'s most-watched original series, which has accumulated more than 1.3 billion hours streamed globally.

That figure matters in context. The Mandalorian's streaming performance set the audience baseline from which the theatrical release was positioned. The conversion of a streaming audience into theatrical ticket buyers - at sufficient scale to reach the global number one position on opening weekend - is a data point the advertising community has been watching closely. Disney's ad-supported streaming subscribers reached 122 million as of early 2026, and the relationship between streaming viewership and theatrical attendance is increasingly relevant to how media buyers plan campaigns around major releases.

Super Troopers 3: August 7 and the Searchlight slot

Super Troopers 3 arrives on August 7 via Searchlight Pictures, the Disney-owned specialty label. The Broken Lizard ensemble - Jay Chandrasekhar as Thorny, Kevin Heffernan as Farva, Steve Lemme as Mac, Paul Soter as Foster, and Erik Stolhanske as Rabbit - returns more than two decades after the original. Chandrasekhar also directs.

According to Disney, the film's plot begins with Farva's engagement to Thorny's sister, which spirals into chaos. The troopers must simultaneously deal with Thorny's interference in the relationship and crack a drug ring - all while attempting to save both the case and the wedding. The original Super Troopers (2001) developed its following over many years, with a cult audience that drove the crowd-funded production of Super Troopers 2 in 2018. The third installment comes eight years after that sequel.

Searchlight's inclusion in a summer slate framed as "blockbuster" is notable. The specialty label typically handles smaller-scale, awards-oriented fare. Placing a Broken Lizard comedy in the summer lineup suggests Disney is treating the established fan base as a reliable commercial driver rather than merely a niche interest.

The Dog Stars: Ridley Scott and an August 28 close

The summer slate closes with 20th Century Studios' The Dog Stars on August 28. Directed by Ridley Scott, the film is based on Peter Heller's bestselling novel. The ensemble cast includes Jacob Elordi, Josh Brolin, Margaret Qualley, Guy Pearce, Benedict Wong, and Allison Janney.

According to Disney, the film is set in a post-apocalyptic world where Hig - Elordi's character, a young pilot - and military survivalist Bangley, played by Brolin, set out after hearing a mysterious radio transmission. The central tension of the story, as Disney frames it, is whether survival instinct can coexist with the choice to remain human. Scott has worked in this genre territory before, most notably with Blade Runner (1982), though The Dog Stars draws from literary source material published in 2012.

The casting of Elordi in the lead role is significant commercially. Following his work in Saltburn (2023) and Priscilla(2023), Elordi has established a profile that draws audiences outside traditional action demographics. Pairing him with Brolin - who carries franchise and prestige film credibility - reflects a casting strategy aimed at broad age range appeal.

Fall releases and the Avengers setup

Beyond summer, Disney's theatrical calendar extends into a substantial fall lineup. A limited theatrical re-release of Avengers: Endgame is scheduled for September 25, positioned as preparation for Avengers: Doomsday, which Disney has confirmed for December 18. The re-release serves a dual marketing function: reintroducing the MCU's continuity to audiences ahead of a new entry, while also generating incremental box office revenue from a title with an established global audience.

20th Century Studios' deep-sea thriller Whalefall follows on October 16. Searchlight Pictures' Wild Horse Nine arrives November 6, directed by Martin McDonagh and starring John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell. Walt Disney Animation Studios closes the pre-Doomsday calendar with Hexed on November 25 - described by Disney as a new original adventure with a magic-centered premise.

What the slate means for advertisers

The scale of Disney's 2026 box office performance to date and the size of its summer lineup have direct implications for media buyers. Disney's Q2 fiscal 2026 results, reported in May 2026, showed streaming entertainment SVOD operating income surging 88% year-over-year to $582 million, with ad revenue rising 12%. The company's theatrical and streaming operations are increasingly interlinked - films generate streaming subscribers, streaming subscribers generate ad impressions, and theatrical marketing campaigns drive both.

Advertisers planning summer campaigns around theatrical releases have to account for the Disney ecosystem in its current form. The company's ad-supported tier, which 50% of new Disney+ subscribers chose when it launched in 2022, has grown substantially. Its programmatic infrastructure now includes certified partnerships with Google's Display and Video 360, The Trade Desk, Yahoo DSP, and Magnite - a live advertising certification program launched in January 2025 that enables real-time bidding against live streaming inventory.

Disney's 2026 Upfront presentation, held at the Javits Center on May 12 with an expected 3,700 attendees, built its positioning around Super Bowl 2027 and the full fiscal year content slate. For advertisers, the summer theatrical releases function as brand-safe environments with multi-generational audience reach that is difficult to replicate in fragmented digital inventory. Toy Story reaches parents and young children simultaneously. Moana reaches a younger demographic increasingly comfortable watching Disney content on streaming first. The Dog Stars and Super Troopers 3 reach adults.

The 651 million tickets sold in 2025, analyzed by The People Platform in a report tracked by PPC Land, underscored cinema's value as a transaction-verified audience channel. That analysis found cinema advertising differentiated itself from streaming and digital by operating on actual ticket purchase data rather than modeled audience estimates. For media buyers running brand campaigns that require precise demographic accountability, cinema inventory offers a verification standard that other channels are still working to establish.

The $2 billion context

Walt Disney Studios becoming the first studio to surpass $2 billion worldwide in 2026 is a significant commercial marker. According to Disney, that milestone was reached across five releases. Hoppers, released earlier in 2026, delivered the biggest domestic debut for an original animated film since Pixar's Coco in 2017 - a result that suggests original storytelling still draws theatrical audiences when the property is strong enough. 20th Century Studios' The Devil Wears Prada 2, nearly two decades after the original, confirmed that audience nostalgia for established characters remains commercially viable. The Mandalorian and Grogu extended that pattern into the Star Wars universe.

The summer slate extends this commercial momentum into a period that is historically the highest-volume theatrical window. Toy Story 5 on June 19 positions Pixar for a peak pre-summer holiday audience. Moana on July 10 lands in the middle of the traditional peak. Super Troopers 3 on August 7 targets the tail of summer vacation before school seasons begin. The Dog Stars on August 28 arrives as summer closes, targeting a slightly older demographic in the final weekend of August.

For the marketing community, the combination of Disney's theatrical presence and its streaming advertising infrastructure creates a planning context that few other media companies can replicate at equivalent scale. The theatrical calendar generates consumer interest. Streaming captures and monetizes it. Programmatic systems allow advertisers to reach those audiences with increasing precision. Disney's programmatic advertising capabilities, built over several years, now sit at the intersection of all three.

Timeline

  • November 1995 - Toy Story, the first Pixar feature, releases in theaters; it remains one of Disney and Pixar's most beloved franchises over 30 years
  • November 2016 - Disney's animated Moana releases, eventually becoming one of the most-streamed films annually on Disney+
  • August 2001 - Super Troopers, the first Broken Lizard film for what became a cult comedy franchise, releases
  • October 2019 - Toy Story 4 releases, the fourth main installment; Toy Story 5 will be the fifth entry and the first since 2019
  • 2022 - Disney launches an ad-supported subscription tier in the USA; 50% of new subscribers chose the ad tier upon launch
  • May 2024 - Disney hosts its Upfront event in New York City, presenting its content and advertising portfolio to media buyers; PPC Land covered the showcase
  • April 8, 2025 - Disney announces expanded biddable ad capabilities across streaming platforms, certifying Google DV360, The Trade Desk, Yahoo DSP, and Magnite for live inventory; PPC Land reported on the expansion
  • September 2, 2025 - FTC announces Disney must pay $10 million for YouTube children's privacy violations involving improper labeling of child-directed videos; PPC Land reported the enforcement action
  • August 6, 2025 - Disney announces NFL partnership expanding streaming advertising reach through ESPN; PPC Land covered the deal
  • January 21, 2026 - AudienceProject activates Disney+ measurement across five European markets; PPC Land reported the integration
  • February 2, 2026 - Disney reports Q1 fiscal 2026 results: streaming revenue exceeds $5 billion for the quarter ended December 27, 2025; SVOD operating income climbs 72% year-over-year to $450 million; PPC Land covered the earnings
  • February 2026 - Josh D'Amaro is named Disney chief executive officer, succeeding Bob Iger
  • March 6, 2026 - Pixar's Hoppers opens in North America, delivering the biggest domestic debut for an original animated film since Coco (2017); Walt Disney Studios begins building toward the $2 billion worldwide milestone
  • March 28, 2026 - The People Platform publishes Cinema Report 2025, analyzing 651 million tickets; PPC Land covered the report's implications for marketers
  • Late April 2026 - 20th Century Studios' The Devil Wears Prada 2 opens, demonstrating continued audience appetite for the franchise nearly two decades after the original
  • May 1, 2026 - Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu opens at number one worldwide, marking Star Wars' return to theatrical release; Disney reports the series has surpassed 1.3 billion hours streamed on Disney+
  • May 7, 2026 - Disney reports Q2 fiscal 2026 results: adjusted EPS of $1.57 beats consensus of $1.50; streaming SVOD income surges 88% year-over-year to $582 million; PPC Land covered D'Amaro's debut earnings
  • May 12, 2026 - Disney holds its Upfront at the Javits Center with an expected 3,700 attendees; PPC Land covered upfront week, noting Disney's positioning around Super Bowl 2027
  • June 1, 2026 - Taylor Swift announces the new original song "I Knew It, I Knew You" for Toy Story 5, per Disney
  • June 4, 2026 - The Walt Disney Company publishes its full summer 2026 theatrical slate, confirming four films across Pixar, Disney Live Action, Searchlight Pictures, and 20th Century Studios; Walt Disney Studios is confirmed as the first studio to surpass $2 billion worldwide in 2026
  • June 19, 2026 - Toy Story 5 scheduled for release (directed by Andrew Stanton; Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Greta Lee)
  • July 10, 2026 - Disney's live-action Moana scheduled for release (Catherine Laga'aia, Dwayne Johnson; directed by Thomas Kail)
  • August 7, 2026 - Super Troopers 3 scheduled for release via Searchlight Pictures (Broken Lizard; directed by Jay Chandrasekhar)
  • August 28, 2026 - The Dog Stars scheduled for release via 20th Century Studios (Ridley Scott; Jacob Elordi, Josh Brolin)
  • September 25, 2026 - Limited theatrical re-release of Avengers: Endgame scheduled
  • October 16, 2026 - Whalefall scheduled for release via 20th Century Studios
  • November 6, 2026 - Wild Horse Nine scheduled for release via Searchlight Pictures (directed by Martin McDonagh; John Malkovich, Sam Rockwell)
  • November 25, 2026 - Hexed scheduled for release via Walt Disney Animation Studios
  • December 18, 2026 - Avengers: Doomsday scheduled for release via Marvel Studios

Summary

Who: The Walt Disney Company, operating through subsidiary labels Walt Disney Studios, Pixar Animation Studios, Disney Live Action, Searchlight Pictures, and 20th Century Studios.

What: A full summer 2026 theatrical slate of four films - Toy Story 5 (June 19), Moana live-action (July 10), Super Troopers 3 (August 7), and The Dog Stars (August 28) - plus an additional fall and holiday lineup through December 2026. The announcement was made alongside disclosure that Walt Disney Studios became the first studio to surpass $2 billion worldwide at the box office in 2026.

When: The slate announcement was published June 4, 2026. The four summer films are scheduled to release between June 19 and August 28, 2026. The fall-to-holiday slate extends through December 18, 2026.

Where: Theatrical releases will be global. The announcement originated from The Walt Disney Company's official newsroom.

Why: Disney is deploying a high-volume theatrical slate to capitalize on the commercial momentum built by earlier 2026 releases - Hoppers, The Devil Wears Prada 2, and The Mandalorian and Grogu - while establishing the company's lead studio position for the year. For the advertising community, the slate is relevant because theatrical performance directly feeds Disney's streaming subscriber base and its $122 million ad-supported audience, with implications for how advertisers plan campaigns across Disney's programmatic and upfront advertising infrastructure.