Weekend Estimates: Toy Story 3 Has Best Opening Ever for Pixar

June 20, 2010

As expected, Toy Story 3 is dominating this weekend at the box office, and it is heading for a record opening for Pixar. Disney is projecting a $109 million opening weekend, which is significantly ahead of the $70 million opening posted by The Incredibles back in 2004. 3D tickets sales and general ticket price inflation helped the cause, of course, but it's still a very impressive result, to go with Disney's success with Alice in Wonderland earlier in the year.

Warner Bros. had a less happy weekend with Jonah Hex, which opened to a very disappointing $5.1 million. The studio wrote of its chances some time ago, so a low score is not a huge surprise, but 8th place is poor however one looks at it.

Perhaps surprisingly, the best performance by a returning movie in the top 10 was achieved by Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, which was down just 18% in its fourth weekend. Shrek Forever After, meanwhile, was clobbered by Toy Story and fell 65% from last weekend to a little over $5.5 million.

In limited release, Cyrus had an outstanding opening for Fox Searchlight, picking up an estimated $180,000 in just four theaters. Winter's Bone continued its excellent run for Roadside Attractions with $338,800 as it expanded into 38 theaters. I am Love was also impressive for Magnolia, picking up $125,000 in eight venues.

- Weekend Estimates

Filed under: Weekend Estimates, Jonah Hex, Shrek Forever After, Toy Story 3, Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, Cyrus, Winter’s Bone