Disney fourth installment of the “Toy Story” franchise hit over $1 billion in global box office sales, the company announced this week. The film is Disney’s fifth billion dollar release this year.
“It is almost comical,” Sean O'Connell, the managing director of Cinemablend, said of Disney’s success.
“Toy Story 4” was made by Pixar, a Disney ($DIS) subsidiary, and released domestically on June 20, boasting over $120 million in its debut weekend. To date, the film has grossed over $421 million in the U.S. and nearly $580 million internationally.
Disney’s other films that hit $1 billion in sales this year include “Captain Marvel,” “Aladdin,” “The Lion King” and “Avengers: Endgame.”
In total, Disney has so far had four animated films reach the $1 billion milestone: “Incredibles 2,” “Finding Doy,” and “Toy Story 3,” which was in 2010.
“I want some other studios to step up and put out movies that break through the culture zeitgeist,” O’Connell said. “And it is not happening right now.”
O’Connell added that Disney’s success this year is significant, especially since the studio does not have any expected hits for release in 2020. Yet with four months left in the year, Disney still has a strong lineup coming with the release of “Frozen 2” in November and "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker" in December.
Disney's stock has been up roughly 23 percent year-to-date.
A California appeals court on Wednesday will consider reviving the dismissed lawsuits of two men who allege Michael Jackson sexually abused them as children for years, a move the court appears likely to make after a tentative decision that would order the cases back to a lower court for trial.
An intense police search of the Long Island home of Rex Heuermann is now complete, authorities said Tuesday as they ended a 12-day hunt for evidence that involved ripping up the yard and the discovery of a basement vault containing hundreds of weapons kept by the man accused of killing at least three women more than a decade ago.
A towering construction crane caught fire high above the west side of Manhattan on Wednesday morning, then lost its long arm, which smashed against a nearby building, dangled and then plummeted to the street as people ran for their lives on the sidewalk below.
