Toy Story and Shrek Eclipsed at box office

Woody from <i>Toy Story 3</i>. Photo / Supplied

Toy Story 3 has left Shrek Forever After in the dust in the competition for children's hearts, minds and eyes during the first week of the school holidays.

But the big winner at the cinema overall this week has been teen flick The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, which has been credited with a huge surge in cinema ticket sales.

The third instalment of Toy Story made about $1.5 million - $500,000 more than Shrek. But in the first week of release, Eclipse made close to $3 million.

The amount of tickets sold online this week was almost double the same week last year, with all three films generating huge interest.

According to online booking site Bookmyshow, last year 7000 tickets were sold in the first week of the July holidays, while this year the number was almost 13,000.

Bookmyshow general manager Matthew Preen said tickets sales for Eclipse had "gone mad - gone gangbusters".

He put the sales increase down to a number of factors, including the bad weather at the beginning of the week.

"Families want to do something with their children and the terrible weather made movies the obvious choice."

But Mr Preen also said that a big difference was the greater number of children's movies this year.

"Last year there were not many PG or child-related movies. This year the content of the movies is better. There's a lot of really good movies for kids."

Mr Preen also attributed the increase in sales to the number of blockbusters, which he described as creating a "perfect storm for cinema".