‘Toy Story 3′ Delivers Pixar’s Biggest Opening Weekend
Eleven years later, the American moviegoers’ affection for Woody and Buzz Lightyear has only grown stronger. “Toy Story 3,” Pixar’s return to their feature film roots, packed theaters in its opening weekend to the tune of an estimated $109 million.
While a good chunk of the receipts came from showing the movie in 3D, it would have handily beat all comers this weekend, as the only competition was last week’s winner, “The Karate Kid” (coming in second with $29 million) and “Jonah Hex,” landing in theaters with an eighth-place, $5 million thud.
Armond White notwithstanding, “Toy Story 3″ had critics and exiting audiences singing its praises. It’s currently the third-highest reviewed film on Rotten Tomatoes, and has filmgoers saying they’ll return to see it again at a whopping 68 percent.
While it handily trumps the $70 million opening weekend of “The Incredibles,” “Toy Story 3″ had the same audience numbers as earlier Pixar releases “Monsters, Inc.” and “Finding “Nemo.”
Here’s the weekend’s top ten, courtesy of BoxOfficeMojo.com:
| TW | LW | Title (click to view) | Weekend Gross | % Change | Total Gross | Budget* | Week # |
| 1 | N | Toy Story 3 | $109,000,000 | - | $109,000,000 | - | 1 |
| 2 | 1 | The Karate Kid | $29,000,000 | -47.9% | $106,254,000 | $40 | 2 |
| 3 | 2 | The A-Team | $13,775,000 | -46.3% | $49,797,000 | $110 | 2 |
| 4 | 4 | Get Him to the Greek | $6,117,000 | -38.5% | $47,857,000 | $40 | 3 |
| 5 | 3 | Shrek Forever After | $5,520,000 | -65.0% | $222,977,000 | $165 | 5 |
| 6 | 6 | Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time |
$5,273,000 | -18.7% | $80,508,000 | $200 | 4 |
| 7 | 5 | Killers | $5,100,000 | -36.3% | $39,370,000 | $75 | 3 |
| 8 | N | Jonah Hex | $5,085,000 | - | $5,085,000 | - | 1 |
| 9 | 9 | Iron Man 2 | $2,675,000 | -40.8% | $304,764,000 | $200 | 7 |
| 10 | 7 | Marmaduke | $2,650,000 | -55.9% | $27,886,000 | $50 | 3 |
