‘Toy Story’ Orders Soar

Initial orders for Walt Disney Home Video’s computer-animated “Toy Story” are the biggest in the studio’s history.

The 21 million orders for the title that will be released Tuesday exceed the 20 million preorders for “The Lion King” in March 1995. They reportedly also slightly exceed the orders so far for 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment’s “Independence Day,” but final preorders for that Nov. 22 release are two weeks away.

Retailers are ordering record numbers of both, with mass merchants such as Wal-mart, Kmart and Target ordering heavier on “Toy Story” and Blockbuster and wholesale clubs such as Costco ordering more copies of “ID4.”