Yesterday, Toy Story 3 crossed the $1 billion mark for worldwide ticket sales. The latest Pixar creation is only the seventh movie of all time to cross that threshold. Strangely enough, Toy Story 3 marks the second time this year that a Disney owned film has earned a billion dollars at the box office. Earlier this year, Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland also scored worldwide earnings over $1 billion. With those films both grossing more than a billion dollars, Disney becomes the first studio ever to have two films reaching those astronomical earnings in one year.
Just two weeks ago, Toy Story 3 became the highest grossing animated film of all time, and now it continues its march up the earnings list with this milestone. So obviously Woody and Buzz are the only animated characters on the billion dollar worldwide earnings list.
Even though Toy Story 3 came out more than two months ago in the United States (June 18), the movie continues to dominate the box office in other countries. The film is the most successful Disney release in Latin America ($138 million) and the United Kingdom ($102.4 million), and its also the fourth highest grossing movie ever in the UK. The film has dominated the Japanese cinema pulling in $111.2 million in its run and finishing #1 at the box office five weeks in a row.
I am not surprised this amazing movie has captivated worldwide audiences like it did the American crowds. The movie is not only a triumph of animation, but of storytelling. Getting viewers to care about toys is never a simple task, but Pixar creators did not get that memo. (Didn't you get the memo?....Batman Begins anyone?)
The surprising thing to me is that Alice in Wonderland made so much money in theaters; apparently I missed that memo. I just now learned that the 2010 Burton directed project is the fifth highest grossing film of all time, just in front of The Dark Knight. I was taken aback because I didn't think the newest 3D Alice in Wonderland was really that great of a movie. It was an interesting watch; but the 3D was crappy, the story was average, and the movie didn't seem to posses the charm of the animated classic.
Any who, I thought posting the top ten grossing films of all time would be interesting for readers to check out. The top seven have all broke the billion dollar mark with Avatar at number one destroying the two billion dollar mark and set to earn even more with its re-release to theaters this weekend.
I think its interesting to note that one of the worst Disney movies I have ever seen, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, found a place on the top ten list. I know not everyone hated this movie as much as I did, but it was one of the few movies that I seriously considered walking out of; and I absolutely loved the first installment and enjoyed the second one. You can also see two of the Potter movies in the top ten. Did you know that all six Potter movies are amongst the top 27 grossing movies of all time while all three Lord of the Rings films are in the top 20? The top ten goes something like this.
Source: BoxOfficeMojo
- Avatar
- Titanic
- The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
- Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
- Alice in Wonderland
- The Dark Knight
- Toy Story 3
- Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
- Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
