Over the weekend beginning Friday, March 10, 2000, TOY STORY 2 made history in Japan by grossing US$3.8 million on only 364 screens to become the biggest opening for a U.S. animated film in Japan and finishing #1 at the box office. The Buena Vista International release crushed the old record set by Disney's THE LION KING by nearly 80%. Woody and Buzz more than doubled this weekend's debut of the 21st installment of the Japanese animated feature series, DORAEMON. TOY STORY 2 was the first film to be exhibited in an all digital format in Japan using Texas Instruments patented DLP Cinema projection system. Playing exclusively at Toho's Nichegeki Plaza cinema, the CGI animated flick has now been exhibited in an all digital format in six theater locations outside of the U.S. including the U.K., France and Belgium. TOY STORY 2's big box office numbers do not end in Japan. The Disney/Pixar film has been the #1 film for five consecutive weekends in the U.K. The cumulative box-office performance in England for the film is $62 million to date. TOY STORY 2 has become the fifth most popular film ever released in the territory's history. After more than three months of release TOY STORY 2 has now earned $186.5 million in international box-office revenues while globally it has registered almost $430 million in box office thus far, making it the largest Disney/Pixar production release to date. In achieving these results it has now surpassed the global performances of Disney/Pixar's previous two productions, A BUG'S LIFE and the original TOY STORY, by almost 20%. Currently, the TOY STORY sequel has moved into 17th place in U.S. box office history recently surpassing the tornado-filled action flick TWISTER.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
