'Finding Dory' swims its way to $1 billion worldwide

Not all sequels are created equal. While so many follow-ups failed at the box office this summer, Disney/Pixar's Finding Dory just crossed the $1 billion worldwide threshold, becoming only the 27th film in history to do so.

It's just the latest milestone for the film, which this past June had the biggest opening weekend ever for an animated movie before becoming the fifth highest grossing animated film of all time, landing behind Frozen, Minions, Toy Story 3 and Zootopia.

Finding Dory is also Pixar's second film to hit the billion-dollar mark, and Disney's fourth film in the past 12 months, which also saw the studio release Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Captain America: Civil War and the aforementioned Zootopia.

I happened to watch Finding Dory on a cross-country flight last night and while it wasn't quite as good as its predecessor, it's easy to see why the sequel caught on with audiences. Ellen DeGeneres is once again a charming delight as the titular blue tang fish, while Ed O'Neill steals the show as Hank the octopus.

Finding Dory remains this year's highest-grossing domestic release with $484.8 million, which is over $100 million more than Finding Nemo. The sequel will be released digitally on Oct. 25 before its DVD/Blu-ray release on Nov. 15.