Woody, Buzz Lightyear and their children’s bedroom pals still have friends at the box office with Toy Story 5 generating US$312 million (A$445 million) in ticket sales as the latest movie in the blockbuster animated series made its debut around the world.
The film generated more revenue in an opening weekend than any other in the franchise's 31-year history by grossing $160 million at the North American box office and $152 million internationally, according to media reports.
This exceeded the franchise record set in 2019 by Toy Story 4, which opened to $120.9 million in North America, and ranked as the second-largest opening weekend for an animated feature behind only The Incredibles 2 in 2018 with $182.7 million in sales.
Paul Dergarabedian, Head of Marketplace Trends at media measurement and analytics company Rentrak, said the film from Walt Disney Company subsidiary Pixar had appeal across every audience demographic.
"Disney and Pixar orchestrated a perfectly timed, flawlessly marketed film that charmed audiences and critics alike that is now set up for weeks of solid playability in movie theatres as it powers toward $1 billion and beyond at the worldwide box office," Dergarabedian was quoted saying in this CNBC article.
Since the first movie in the franchise was released in 1995 Toy Story has earned more than $3 billion at the box office in addition to billions of dollars from video games, toys, merchandise, books, apparel and -real-life experiences.
The latest sequel reunites many of the franchise's original movie stars providing the characters’ voices including Tom Hanks as Woody and Tim Allen as Buzz Lightyear.
In the story the main children's character Bonnie receives a new tablet device named Lilypad, whose arrival threatens to reshape the role of traditional toys.
The series was intended to end in 2010 with the third movie but the controversial decision to revive it has proved lucrative with Toy Story 4 grossing more than $1 billion and the latest instalment set to do the same, according to industry analysts.
They have observed family-oriented films continue to outperform many other genres at the box office.
