How many Toy Story films have been released?

How to get close to this number

Count the decades. The first arrived in 1995 and the most recent in 2026, and animated sequels from this studio come roughly once a decade rather than on a franchise schedule. Thirty-one years at that cadence gives four or five films, not the eight or more a live-action franchise would produce in the same time.

The gaps in the explanation are the interesting pattern: four years, then eleven, then nine, then seven. Most franchises accelerate as they succeed; this one slowed down sharply after its first sequel, because the studio waited for a story rather than a release date. Sequel cadence is a direct measure of whether a studio is making films or filling a schedule.

The first film's significance is worth restating from the Toy Story production question on this site: it was the first fully computer-animated feature ever made. A franchise that began by inventing a medium and then released a sequel only when it had something to say is unusual in both directions.