'Inside Out 2' Has a Huge Opening Weekend
by EG
We're almost halfway through 2024, and until this week, Hollywood hadn't delivered a true hit movie all year. That changed this week with the huge debut of Pixar's animated Inside Out 2, which scored a record-breaking opening weekend. Last year, the success of Barbie and Oppenheimer led some to speculate that original movies might replace sequels and franchise installments as the main product pumped out by Hollywood. With this week's turn of events, look for that speculation to evaporate and for studios to return to their focus primarily on repackaged intellectual property. Read on for details.
Where to begin in describing the emotions that Hollywood and theater owners — not to mention Pixar and its parent company Disney — are likely feeling over the stunning start of Inside Out 2 at the box office. (Hint: Sadness isn’t one of them.)
In a joyous comeback for Pixar, the tentpole opened to a massive $155 million domestically over Father’s Day weekend — well ahead of an expected $90 million — to secure the second-biggest animated launch of all time for a three-day weekend, not adjusted for inflation. It also did historic business overseas, where it opened to a record $140 million for a global total of $295 million, the biggest opening of all time for an animated film in like-for-like markets when accounting for exchange rates.
Fellow Pixar sequel Incredibles 2 is the crown-holder for top animated domestic opening ($182.7 million). That was previously followed by Illumination and Universal’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie ($146.4 million) — which Inside Out 2 has supplanted — Pixar’s Finding Dory ($135.1 million) and Walt Disney Animation’s Frozen II ($130.3 million).
Inside Out 2 is just what the doctor ordered for Pixar, which has endured several years of strife, including when the former Disney regime decided to send a trio of Pixar films straight to streaming.
Internationally, the film only opened in 60 percent of the marketplace this weekend. It broke records across Latin America, where it secured the second-biggest opening of all time behind Marvel and Disney’s Avengers: Endgame and opened to $30.2 million in Mexico alone. Inside Out 2 also drew big numbers across Europe and Asia; South Korea ponied up $14.9 million and the U.K., $13.9 million.
Heading into the weekend, the $200 million sequel was tracking for a North American debut in the $90 million range, in line with the first film, which went on to earn nearly $860 million globally. Instead, Inside Out 2 is the first movie since Barbie almost a year ago to cross $100 million in its launch, a symbol of just how beleaguered the box office has been so far in 2024 due to strike-related delays and a precipitous downturn in moviegoing. (Barbie opened to $162 million domestically. And, like Barbie, Inside Out 2 has every chance of joining the billion-dollar box office club.)
Inside Out 2 earned glowing reviews and boasts a Rotten Tomatoes critics score of 93 percent. It earned an A CinemaScore, while the Rotten Tomatoes audience score of 96 percent is a Pixar-best.
Directed by Kelsey Mann, the sequel introduces a whole new cast of emotions who are brought into “head”-quarters when the story’s young heroine, Riley, becomes a teenager. Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust aren’t so sure how to feel about the arrival of Anxiety, Envy, Ennui and Embarrassment. Amy Poehler leads the voice cast that also includes Maya Hawke, Kensington Tallman, Liza Lapira, Tony Hale, Lewis Black, Phyllis Smith, Ayo Edebiri, Lilimar, Grace Lu, Sumayyah Nuriddin-Green, Adèle Exarchopoulos, Diane Lane, Kyle MacLachlan, Paul Walter Hauser and Yvette Nicole Brown.
Get the rest of the story at The Hollywood Reporter.