Finding Nemo a new animation studio, Circle 7 Animation, to make sequels to the seven Disney-owned Pixar films (which consisted of the films released between 1995 and 2006). The studio had put "Toy Story 3" and "Monsters University" into development, and had hired screenwriter Laurie Craig to write a draft for "Finding Dory". Circle 7 was subsequently shut down after Robert Iger replaced Eisner as CEO of Disney and arranged the acquisition of Pixar. In July 2012, it was reported that Andrew Stanton was developing a sequel to "Finding Nemo", to be titled "Finding Dory", with Victoria Strouse writing the script, and
Finding Nemo surpassed it. The film sold an estimated 56,337,500 tickets in the US in its initial theatrical run. In North America, "Finding Nemo" set an opening weekend record for an animated feature, making $70,251,710 (first surpassed by "Shrek 2") and ended up spending 11 weeks in the top 10 domestically (including 7 weeks in the top 5), remaining there until August 14. It became the highest-grossing animated film in North America ($339.7 million), outside North America ($528.2 million), and worldwide ($867.9 million), in all three occasions out-grossing "The Lion King". In North America, it was surpassed by both "Shrek 2" in