Cars

Cars premiered on May 26, 2006, at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina — a racetrack premiere for a racing movie — before hitting US theaters on June 9. John Lasseter directed, inspired by his own cross-country road trip, and co-wrote it with Joe Ranft, the beloved Pixar story man who died in an automobile crash a year before release; the film's credits carry his memorial. Owen Wilson voiced Lightning McQueen, the rookie who gets stranded in Radiator Springs, a desert town on Route 66 left for dead when the interstate bypassed it. Paul Newman — in his last non-documentary film role — voiced Doc Hudson, the town judge revealed to be the legendary Fabulous Hudson Hornet, with Larry the Cable Guy as Mater the rusty tow truck and Bonnie Hunt as Sally, a 2002 Porsche 911 Carrera. Randy Newman scored it; Sheryl Crow, Rascal Flatts, John Mayer, and Brad Paisley filled the soundtrack.

The film grossed $462 million worldwide on a $120 million budget — sixth-highest of 2006 — and though it lost the Best Animated Feature Oscar to Happy Feet, it took home the Golden Globe and the Annie. It was also a hinge point in studio history: the final film Pixar produced independently, with Disney's purchase of the studio announced in January 2006, months before release.

But the box office was a rounding error next to the toy aisle. Per Disney figures reported by the Los Angeles Times, Cars generated global retail sales approaching $10 billion in the five years after release — die-cast Lightning McQueens in every shopping cart, backpacks, bedsheets, lunchboxes — putting it in the merchandising company of Star Wars and Toy Story. The die-cast collection habit it started in preschoolers outlived the decade, the sequels, and most of the bedroom furniture it was printed on.