Toy Story 2 not only shattered UK box office records over the weekend but also broke the boundary of the animation genre. The Walt Disney/Pixar computer-generated animation scooped an unprecedented £7.8m ($12.4m) in the UK over three days (Fri 11-Sun 13), becoming the country's all-time highest weekend gross. This surpasses Star Wars: Episode One - The Phantom Menace's Friday to Sunday gross of £7.5m ($12m) and truly proves the crossover age and gender appeal of the film, creating a whole new category of its own.

Released at a huge 496 cinemas, one week after an exclusive digital presentation of the sequel at the Odeon Leicester Square, Toy Story 2's weekend screen average was £15,643 and it has a running tally of £8m.

The previous highest animation opening was Disney/Pixar's last production A Bug's Life which grossed £4.2m in February 1999 and became the second biggest grossing hit last year with £30m.

But Toy Story 2's gigantic gross also steered the UK's total box office takings for all films on release to a new all-time high. UK cinemas recorded a total of £14.2m ($22.6m) over the weekend besting the tally of £13.8m ($22m) taken on the weekend of the release of The Blair Witch Project last October.

The long-awaited release of 20th Century Fox-backed British production, The Beach starring Leonardo DiCaprio, didn't disappoint and reeled in a healthy £2.4m from 311 sites. Oscar contender The End Of The Affair distributed by Columbia TriStar also squeezed into the weekend's release window but reaped a lower screen average of £2,500. Last weekend's chart topper American Beauty held on to £1.65m from 310 cinemas over the weekend.