Box Office, Pixar | featured news

Pixar’s “Brave” did $24.5M on Friday and expected to gross around $70M this weekend, better than the $60M box office analysts were projecting. According to BoxOfficeMojo.com, it’s the third highest opening day box office for Pixar behind “Toy Story 3” ($41M) and “Cars 2” ($25.7M).

Pixar’s “Cars 2” overcame surprisingly negative critical reviews to overperform at the weekend box office, selling an estimated $68 million at North American theaters. That No. 1 finish extends Pixar’s perfect box-office track record — all 12 of its feature films have opened in first place. How sales hold up, however, will be watched carefully. “Cars 2,” directed by John Lasseter, chief creative officer at Pixar, represents an end to the studio’s perfect critical track record; only about 34 percent of reviews were positive, according to RottenTomatoes.com, by far the worst for any Pixar title.

On Friday, Pixar demonstrated its reliability again with the roll-out of Cars 2. The manufacturer's latest model posted an estimated $25.7 million out of the gate, but many moviegoers were hot for Bad Teacher as well. Riding on approximately 7,700 screens at 4,115 locations, Cars 2 delivered the second highest-grossing opening day yet for a Pixar movie, behind Toy Story 3's $41.1 million, and the talking car sequel is poised for a weekend gross in the Pixar-typical $70 million range.
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Woody and his pals have just elbowed aside the green ogre as Disney/Pixar's "Toy Story 3" climbed above Paramount/DreamWorks' "Shrek 2" to become the top-grossing animated film worldwide.

Movie fans have not outgrown the "Toy Story 3" gang. The animated sequel about toys that come to life leaped to the No. 1 spot with a $109 million opening weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday.

Rapturous reviews and a colossal marketing campaign sent “Up” into the box office stratosphere over the weekend.

Hollywood planned a 2nd straight weekend friendly for family filmgoers who have pent-up demand. With 20% of K-through-12 out of school today, Pixar/Disney's 10th pic and first 3-D movie, Up, was able to get a jump on the domestic box office with busy matinees from 1,534 3-D theaters -- a record -- and a total of 3,766 theatres total.