Toy Story 3 biggest film of 2010

Toy Story 3 tops the worldwide box office, followed by Alice in Wonderland and Harry Potter

Toy Story 3 has been named the highest grossing film of 2010 in a year that saw animated movies dominate the worldwide box office.

Pixar's final instalment in the saga which began in 1995 with Toy Story, the world's first fully CGI animated feature, made a spectacular $1.05bn (£682m) globally. It just beat the Disney fantasy Alice in Wonderland for the top spot with the Tim Burton-directed film taking $1.02bn.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part one, the latest instalment in the saga of JK Rowling's boy wizard, made third place with $831m. It has only been in cinemas for six weeks, so could well end up with a rather larger haul.

The three other animations to make the top 10 were another sequel, Shrek Forever After, which took $737m worldwide and took the fifth spot, Despicable Me, with $539m in eighth and How to Train Your Dragon with $493m in 10th place. Animations have performed well before at the box office, but studio Disney, which owns Pixar, will be hoping to capitalise on Toy Story's success in this year's Oscars race. The company wants to see its film - also one of the year's best reviewed movies - rewarded in the best film category, rather than handed the traditional "best animated film" gong.

Apart from the animations, all but one of the films in the top 10 were either sequels, remakes, or adaptations. The trend-bucker was Christopher Nolan's Inception at number four. The sci-fi-tinged thriller about a heist being carried out in a dangerous dreamworld took a remarkable $825m globally to prove that original material can still attract big audiences.

The other films to make the top 10 were vampire romance Twilight Eclipse, in sixth spot with $693m, superhero sequel Iron Man 2, in seventh with $622m, and fantasy remake Clash of the Titans, with $493m in ninth.

The inclusion of the latter – scorned by critics – suggests that studios are still, on occasion, making big bucks with poor movies wrapped up in attractive marketing. Of the top 10 films, Toy Story 3, Inception, the Harry Potter film, Despicable Me, Iron Man 2 and How to Train Your Dragon received decent reviews, but reactions to the others ranged from apathy to outright disgust.