I believe it was Mr. Potato Head's villainous playtime alter ego, One-Eyed Bart, who once said "Money, money, money!"
It took a little bit of doing, and a lot of debit card swipes, but Disney's TOY STORY 4 has finally crossed the $1 billion mark, making it the fifth Disney feature in 2019 to earn over $1 billion at the worldwide box office. To be clear, no other major studio has ever come close to reaching this milestone. What makes matters even more interesting is that the House of Mouse still has FROZEN 2 and STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER looking to dominate the holiday box office later this year. That's a total of seven films all released within the same 12-month period that either have or are bound to break the bank.
With Disney having wrapped their white-gloved hands around so much cash, rival studios have undoubtedly felt the burn left by the studio's box office tracks. As a matter of opinion, I would say that the Disney/Fox merger put the fear in competitors as well, seeing as Disney is bound to reap the benefits of that acquisition in due time. Granted, it hasn't worked out too well for them so far, but those X-Men and Fantastic Four properties are just years away from being capitalized on, and oh the floodgates, they shall open wide, my friends.
Other films to cross the $1 billion mark for Disney this year include CAPTAIN MARVEL ($1.1B), AVENGERS: ENDGAME ($2.795B), THE LION KING ($1.3B) and ALADDIN ($1.03B).
To date, TOY STORY 4 has earned $421.8M domestic, and $580M overseas. The TOY STORY sequel that no one thought they needed also boasts the biggest opening ever worldwide for an animated feature with $244.5M. In terms of overall rankings, TOY STORY 4 currently stands as the eighth highest-grossing animated film ever. Wow! Imagine all the rare collectibles you could buy with that amount of scratch.
Needeless to say, Disney is sitting pretty right now. Moreover, the studio also plans to launch their exclusive streaming service, Disney+, this November which is bound to make the company even more money. In addition to debuting origianl films on the service, Disney also has plans to expand its Marvel Cinematic Universe on the streamer with shows like LOKI, WANDAVISION, FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLIDER, HAWKEYE, and WHAT … IF? Soon it will be time for Disney to go door-to-door, and measure folks for their mouse ears. These mouse ears will have a little microchip built in that will allow the studio to know all of our thoughts and feelings. What? You don't believe me? You just wait. Mickey Mouse will be kicking your door in with Pete, Goofy, and Donald waiting to break your legs if you don't comply with their new world order. Mark my words.
Congratulations, Disney, you've earned it. Literally.