Toy Story still has a friend in movie-goers. The fifth instalment in the Pixar series debuted with US$160 million in domestic ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday, easily setting a new franchise record and notching the biggest opening weekend of the year.

Launching 31 years after the original Toy Story first landed in theatres, the film far surpassed the previous series-best debut. Internationally, it was just as successful, with US$152 million in opening-weekend sales, for a worldwide haul of US$312 million. The franchise is one of the most profitable for The Walt Disney Co, and had collectively grossed more than US$3 billion, while also pulling in billions from merchandising.

Though the series seemed to reach a conclusion with 2010’s Toy Story 3, the decision to revive the franchise almost a decade later — while controversial — has been extremely lucrative. Toy Story 4 exceeded US$1 billion in ticket sales.