In Disney and Pixar's “Inside Out 2,” Riley's sense of self is made up of all of his beliefs, each of which can be heard with the touch of a string. Sadness (voice of Phyllis Smith) and Joy (voice of Amy Poehler) provide key memories of this formative land.
Disney | pixar
disney and Pixar's “Inside Out 2” could be the first movie since Warner Bros.' “Barbie” will exceed one billion dollars at the global box office.
The animated film has grossed $724.4 million worldwide as of Sunday, making it the highest-grossing film of 2024. Warner Bros. and Legendary Entertainment's “Dune: Part Two” previously held the record for this year with 711.8 million dollars.
“Inside Out 2” has yet to be released in Japan, contributing nearly $33 million to the first film's $850.5 million global total in 2015.
“As a global phenomenon that appeals to moviegoers far beyond families and children and a message that resonates and is identifiable across cultures and languages, 'Inside Out 2' is the rare film that is both a speedster of box office and a marathon runner,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore. “He is the perfect candidate to be admitted to the billion-dollar club.”
While Disney's 2022 film “Avatar: The Way of Water” surpassed the billion-dollar mark on its way to grossing more than $2 billion, the company's Pixar studio has not seen a movie reaching that benchmark since 2019's “Toy Story 4.”
After the pandemic, both Walt Disney Animation and Pixar struggled to regain a place at the box office. The difficulties occurred in part because Disney opted to release a handful of animated films directly to the Disney+ streaming service during movie theater closures and even once theaters had reopened.
Before “Inside Out 2,” no Disney animated film from Pixar or Walt Disney Animation had generated more than $480 million at the global box office since 2019.
The film grossed another $100 million domestically over the weekend, an unprecedented 35% drop from its opening weekend. Movies typically see a 50% to 70% drop in ticket sales from their first weekend to their second weekend.
With this feat, “Inside Out 2” becomes one of seven titles to surpass $100 million in its second weekend. The others are five Disney films – “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”, “Avengers: Endgame”, “Avengers: Infinity War”, “Black Panther” and “The Avengers” – and universal “Jurassic World.”
“Inside Out 2” brought in $100 million thanks to midweek screenings from Monday to the previous Thursday.
“The performance of 'Inside Out 2' is a culmination of many things,” said Shawn Robbins, founder and owner of Box Office Theory. “A meaningful story that people of all ages and backgrounds can relate to, goodwill towards the original film, the appeal of Disney and Pixar's legacy brands, pent-up demand for a family film, a running time of less than two hours very consumer-friendly, school holidays, “and the oppressive heat waves that force many people indoors for air-conditioned entertainment can be considered ingredients in the recipe for this box office storm.”
The film has been overrated among family audiences, which represented more than 70% of attendees during the film's national premiere, according to data from EntTelligence. This moviegoing audience has been neglected post-pandemic, as many family-friendly titles headed straight to streaming or were pushed off the calendar due to movie theater or production theater closures.
Last year, that audience flocked to see “The Super Mario Bros. Movie.” from Universal, which generated more than $1.36 billion at the global box office.
“Inside Out 2” also brought the coveted teen demographic to theaters, with 14% of foot traffic coming from 13- to 17-year-olds. This younger generation has been largely absent from the market in recent years.
As the future of moviegoing, this group is particularly important to the industry. Returning them to the big screen has become a priority for studios and movie theater operators.
“A blockbuster is just what the doctor ordered for movie theater owners, too,” Robbins said. “They were deprived of event-level premieres to begin the summer season in May, thanks in large part to delays in premieres caused by last year's labor strikes. It usually doesn't take until mid-June to see a box-office performer of this stature, but “Coupled with the continued health of 'Bad Boys: Ride or Die,' it may well attract the kind of avalanche of success the industry expects from several high-potential releases beginning in the second half of the year.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC. NBCUniversal is the distributor of “Jurassic World” and “The Super Mario Bros. Movie.”
