Chapter 840: Fastest to Break 600 Million Dollars

The profits from this franchise were intimately tied to Duke. After leaving the premiere and returning to his Malibu home, he immediately updated his Instant Sharing account and the message board on his official website, steadfastly promoting a film that served his interests.

"Pixar Studio's Toy Story 3 comes seventeen years after the first film, and more than ten years after the second. For an animated film, this time span means that the young audience who first fell in love with Woody and Buzz Lightyear have already entered adulthood. In truth, this is a highly disadvantageous situation for a children's movie sequel."

"But Pixar excels at appealing to all ages. The first hour of the film welcomes new friends, while the last half hour rewards the old. Andy has grown from a naive little boy into a teenager about to head off to college, making it easy for the audience to relate to his journey. Because of this, despite its relaxed and humorous atmosphere, the entire film is permeated with a faint sense of sorrow. It is, in fact, a gathering held to say goodbye."

Like other Hollywood film studios, Pixar Studio did not operate in a vacuum. With the backing of a massive platform like Time Warner, its promotion and distribution efforts would undoubtedly attract far more media attention.

Nostalgia was a powerful marketing weapon in North America, and Toy Story 3, which leaned heavily on that appeal, won universal praise from the media.

"With a clear storyline and explicit motives, the film uses a continuous stream of unexpected situations and clever resolutions to draw the audience into an experience that, while seemingly a bit far-fetched in its overall setup, is full of charm. The creators were even bolder in their characterizations. Everyone has their shining moments and distinct personality, and even villains like Lotso possess rich layers. The escape sequence, where the toys cooperate using their respective strengths, is particularly creative."

— Washington Post

"Toy Story 3 is a far superior film to Robot WALL-E and Up. Throughout its 103-minute runtime, it never loses the audience's interest. It balances action and thriller elements with vivid characters and a constantly moving story. In short, it has everything a movie should have—it is humorous, touching, exciting, and clever."

— Los Angeles Times

"A sincere and joyful summer movie. Full of action, humor, and nostalgia, it acts as a veritable compass for hugely influential pop culture and boasts a lively atmosphere."

— Yahoo Entertainment

Toy Story 3 set off an unprecedented frenzy of praise for an animated feature.

By its second day, the film's overall media score reached 96, with a Rotten Tomatoes freshness rating of 97 percent. Out of 161 media outlets, only three gave it a rotten rating. The Arizona Republic, Boxoffice, The Christian Science Monitor, Entertainment Weekly, Hollywood Reporter, New York Daily News, Movie Online, The Times-Picayune, New York Magazine, Los Angeles Times, The Oregonian, Time, San Francisco Chronicle, USA Today, and The Wall Street Journal, as well as websites like Yahoo Entertainment and Salon, all generously bestowed ultra-high scores of nine or ten.

In audience exit polls conducted by CinemaScore, the market research firm that best reflects audience word-of-mouth, Toy Story 3 received the highest possible grade of A+. It became the second film in North America to earn an A+ rating this year, right after The Avengers.

For Duke and Time Warner, as long as the mainstream audience bought in, everything else could be brushed aside.

The box office for Toy Story 3 aptly reflected this. Although its midnight screening box office was only 8.8 million dollars, it was still an animated movie, and the figure set a new North American midnight screening record for animated features!

When Friday arrived, Toy Story 3 opened widely across more than 8,200 screens in 4,028 theaters in North America. The film's early debut in overseas markets did nothing to dampen enthusiasm on American soil. The immense strength of its word-of-mouth merely served as icing on the cake for its box office.

On its opening day, the film raked in 48.15 million dollars in North America. This broke the continent's opening day record for animated features, previously held by Pixar Studio itself. Even on a global scale, it was an unattainable achievement for an animated movie in a single market.

Meanwhile, Jonah Hex, which opened alongside Toy Story 3, became a tragedy. On Friday alone, the massive Sony Columbia Pictures production earned just over 2 million dollars in North America, nearly giving the producers at Sony Entertainment a heart attack. The film's terrible D- audience rating also meant that Josh Brolin—the famous Hollywood producer rumored to only take on good movies—saw his lucky streak come to an end.

In stark contrast, Toy Story 3 was met with a chorus of cheers. Netizens eagerly shared their thoughts on the film across Twitter and Instant Sharing.

"As the concluding chapter of the Toy Story trilogy, the film delivers a soul-stirring ending for Andy and the toys. To children, toys represent not just joy and spiritual reliance, but indelible coordinates on the long journey of growing up."

"Perhaps we can't experience such dramatic gatherings and partings with our toys like Andy did, but the film still reminds us of the toys that accompanied us through our lonely childhoods. Most people will never get the chance to do what Andy did. Whether their unknown fates will tug at your heartstrings while watching Toy Story 3 is a touchstone that tests your childlike innocence and nostalgia."

"The conversation between Andy and the little girl Bonnie symbolizes the passing down and continuation of a childlike heart. When Andy enthusiastically introduces the toys that accompanied him through his unforgettable childhood one by one, the resulting shock and melancholy are comparable to the opening ten minutes of Up. Furthermore, its execution is a return to original simplicity, falling into place naturally. The final twenty minutes of Toy Story 3 alone are enough to make this film immortal. This is the true value of Pixar animation."

For audiences who had seen the first Toy Story, this movie was just like what the live-action Transformers was to Transformers fans—it meant far, far too much.

"I was in the third grade when I watched Toy Story, and I was graduating from college when I watched Toy Story 3... I want to say that this is a gift from Pixar Studio to our generation. Goodbye, my childhood! Thank you, Woody! Thank you, Buzz Lightyear! Thank you, Pixar Studio!"

"The touching part of Toy Story 3 is that it gives us older folks an official chance to say goodbye to our childhood. When a college-bound Andy puts Cowboy Woody on his back one last time, seventeen years of time vanish so amicably and gently into the sunset beyond the wooden house."

"When Andy carefully counted out his toys at the end, it made me realize that I've grown up just like that, and I can never go back to the past with them. Toy Story left a brand on my heart since childhood—it made me feel that toys are little lives with emotions, experiencing their own joys and sorrows in a dimension we can't see. Also, compared to real life, toys offer a little less pressure. Toys won't die as long as you don't abandon them, so please never abandon them..."

Amidst this sea of praise, Toy Story 3 concluded its first weekend.

It earned 41.14 million dollars on Friday; it saw a slight dip on Saturday but still earned 37.09 million dollars; by Sunday, the drop widened again, but the 32.06 million dollar result was still eye-catching enough.

Over its three-day opening weekend, the North American box office for Toy Story 3 reached a staggering 110.3 million dollars!

Since animated features typically enjoyed relatively long theater shelf lives, such an opening weekend box office practically guaranteed that Toy Story 3 would become a massive blockbuster.

In terms of overseas box office, Toy Story 3 performed well in Britain, France, Germany, New Zealand, Australia, and even Latin America. However, in the Far East, it encountered a somewhat cold reception due to various reasons, such as its character designs and its distinctly Western themes.

Especially in the China market, where The Avengers had already raked in over 1.598 billion RMB, Toy Story 3 met with a mediocre response, earning less than 40 million RMB during its three-day opening weekend.

Of course, this wasn't solely the fault of Toy Story 3. The Chinese animated film market hadn't fully formed yet. The animated films that sold well in China weren't all-ages features, but rather highly infantile movies produced specifically for children aged ten and under.

However, even with its cold reception in the Far East, Toy Story 3's opening weekend overseas box office still exceeded 200 million dollars, bringing its combined global box office to a massive 328.99 million dollars!

This was a result that easily warranted a celebration party for Duke, Time Warner, and Pixar Studio.

As the box office for The Avengers—a fast-moving theatrical consumer good—began to flatten out, Toy Story 3 picked up the slack and continued Warner's wealth-amassing journey.

As July slowly approached, the cumulative North American box office for Toy Story 3 topped 297 million dollars, making the 300 million dollar milestone an imminent reality.

Meanwhile, the film's global box office soared to a height of 624.71 million dollars!

At this point, no one doubted that the North American box office for Toy Story 3 could pass 400 million dollars, and that its global total could exceed 1 billion dollars!

The final song of the Toy Story franchise was bound to create a legend for animated features.

At the same time, the hype for The Avengers was steadily declining. Having screened for this long, although its theater count remained over 4,000, its screen share had long since dropped below thirty percent, and its daily box office output had slid down to the single-million-dollar level.

However, as June drew to a close, The Avengers still managed to set the record for the fastest film to break 600 million dollars in North America.