Frozen becomes top-grossing animated film: Disney

Disney's hit film Frozen has become the top-grossing animated film in box office history, the studio said on Sunday as the musical topped $1 billion US in global sales.

The film has sold $398.4 million US worth of tickets at domestic (U.S. and Canadian) theatres since opening on November 27, on the eve of the American Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

Foreign box offices have added another $674 million US, for a global total of $1.072 billion US, Disney said.

Frozen, inspired by the fairy tale The Snow Queen, is the story of a Scandinavian princess who must reconnect with her sister, the Queen, who has the power of freezing anything into ice with her hands and accidentally sets off a long winter that is destroying their kingdom. The film features the voices of Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Jonathan Groff and Josh Gad.

The previous animated-film box office champion was 2010's Toy Story 3, which racked up $1.063 billion US in sales, according to Boxofficemojo.com.

Both films were distributed by Walt Disney Pictures.

Frozen, which stayed in the top 10 films on domestic box office charts for more than three months, also has now become the 10th-largest grossing film in cinema history.