A $5.9 billion empire collapsed — and Disney’s decisions paved the way

Numbers first: Pixar ’s Toy Story 5 has sailed past $1 billion worldwide after a $312 million global opening — the biggest of 2026 so far — and 20th Century Studios’ The Devil Wears Prada 2 is closing in on $700 million globally. It ’s the kind of run that makes Disney look unstoppable at the box office again.

At the same time, Disney is moving the Ice Age franchise forward without the studio that built it. The company has Ice Age 6: Boiling Point on the calendar for 2027 — even though Blue Sky Studios, where Manny, Sid, Diego and Scrat were born, shut down five years ago.

Blue Sky at a glance

• 1987 — Founded in Connecticut by artists including Chris Wedge, out of the remnants of MAGI, the computer-graphics pioneer behind Tron.
• 1997 — Fox acquires control of Blue Sky, folding it into what became 20th Century Fox Animation.
• 1998 — Wedge’s short Bunny wins the Oscar for Best Animated Short — an Academy Award before the studio’s first feature.
• 2002 — Ice Age opens, turning a prehistoric road trip (and one very unlucky baby) into a $383 million worldwide hit.
• 2019 — Disney completes its $71.3 billion purchase of most of 21st Century Fox, inheriting Blue Sky and its library.
• Feb.–Apr. 2021 — Disney cites pandemic economics and announces Blue Sky’s closure; the studio shuts its doors in April, with roughly 450 employees affected.
• 2027 — Disney plans to release Ice Age 6: Boiling Point.

Blue Sky’s fate wasn’t only about a changing box office. Once Fox took over in 1997, the studio’s future depended on choices made higher up — which franchises to back, how big the budgets could be, what got priority. After Disney bought Fox in 2019, it suddenly had three feature animation outfits under one roof: Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar and Blue Sky. When COVID-19 hammered theaters, parks and the broader entertainment business, Disney decided a third feature-animation studio wasn’t sustainable.

Disney closed Blue Sky in April 2021, affecting about 450 employees.

What survives

Disney didn’t scrap the characters. It kept the Ice Age IP and has continued to develop it in-house; Scrat and the gang live on even if the original shop doesn’t. The contrast is sharp in 2026: Walt Disney Animation has notched another billion-dollar run with Zootopia 2, Pixar is riding high on Toy Story 5, and Disney’s broader slate — including 20th Century Studios’ The Devil Wears Prada 2 — has helped power a resurgent year in theaters.

The next chapter for Manny and friends is already dated: Ice Age 6: Boiling Point is planned for 2027.