Some things never change, and in the case of Disney’s Pixar, that would be the universal love for Toy Story. After notching the biggest franchise opening at the global box office, Toy Story 5 has achieved another milestone in its third weekend of release with a worldwide haul of US$808.6 million.
The ticket sales figure puts it as the third-biggest Hollywood title of the year behind The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (US$1.01 billion) and Michael Jackson biopic Michael (US$991 million). At its current pace, the animated sequel is expected to join the highly coveted one-billion-dollar club and eventually overtake 2019’s Toy Story 4 as the highest-grossing instalment in the 30-year-old series, which now sits at US$1.07 billion. It also scored the second-largest animated opening weekend in history, outperformed only by 2018’s Incredibles 2, and has more than justified its US$250 million budget.
Directed by Pixar veteran Andrew Stanton, whose credits include Finding Nemo and Wall-E, Toy Story 5 follows Woody, Buzz Lightyear, Jessie and crew as their owner, Bonnie, becomes addicted to her new favourite gadget, a kiddie smart tablet known as Lilypad. Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, and Joan Cusack all reprise their roles as the toy trio, respectively, in the film, with Greta Lee (Lilypad), Scarlett Spears (Bonnie), Craig Robinson (Atlas), Annie Potts (Bo Peep), Wallace Shawn (Rex), John Ratzenberger (Hamm), Blake Clark (Slinky Dog), and Tony Hale (Forky) rounding out the voice cast.
While Hanks and Allen have portrayed their characters since the original 1995 classic, Cusack’s Jessie was first introduced in the 1999 follow-up and gets her time to shine in this latest outing. Alongside five mainline titles, the franchise also includes 2022’s Lightyear and has grossed more than US$3.3 billion collectively.
Si Jia is a casual geek at heart – or as casual as someone with Sephiroth’s theme on her Spotify playlist can get. A fan of movies, games, and Japanese culture, Si Jia’s greatest weakness is the Steam Summer Sale. Or any Steam sale, really.
Kevin Low
