“Inside Out 2” has become the fastest-ever animated film to surpass $1 billion globally, shooting past the box office milestone this weekend, just 19 days after its release.
“We’re absolutely thrilled to have reached this phenomenal milestone in record time, and it once again proves that global audiences will come out for a great movie,” Tony Chambers, Disney’s executive vice president of theatrical distribution, said Sunday in a news release. “The film’s remarkable success is a testament not only to the incredible creativity of the Pixar team but an example of moviegoing at its very best.”
The resounding success of “Inside Out 2” has jolted a sluggish 2024 box office. Until the film’s release on June 16, domestic sales had been lagging more than 25% behind 2023’s performance, according to Comscore data.
“Over the past few weeks, we’ve seen the year-to-date, year-over-year domestic box office revenue deficit shrink from 27% to 19% and that’s due in large part to the amazing and much welcome performance of ‘Inside Out 2,’ a film that has adjusted the mood of the movie industry in just a few short weeks,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore.
The movie is the highest grossing film of the year, and the first to pass $1 billion since “Barbie,” which came out last July. It also joins the ranks of eight other Disney and Pixar movies grossing more than a $1 billion, including “The Incredibles 2,” “Finding Dory,” both “Frozen” movies and the final two “Toy Story” installments.
Daniel Loria, editorial director at Box Office Pro, which collects sales and showtime data from thousands of movie theaters across the United States, projects this year will see an overall domestic box office total between $8.1 billion and $8.4 billion, down from 2023’s total of more than $9 billion, the highest since the pandemic.
But Loria notes it is still possible to close the gap further.
The impact of the strike on the box office is clear in the first five months of the year, but June has shown us the crucial role movie theaters play in a film industry firing on all cylinders,” he said. “If the movies are there, the audience will follow. I expect to see great numbers in the second half of the year, leading into 2025 and beyond. Another surprise hit or two, and we may get a lot closer to matching that $9 billion than we all expected coming into the year.”
Inside Out 2 has been the story of the summer, breaking records at the ticket booth and delighting audiences around the world. Now, the film has reached a rare milestone: earning $1 billion at the box office.
The Pixar Animation Studios film — which brings audiences back into the mind of Riley as she deals with a host of new emotions as a teenager — has crossed the $1 billion mark at the worldwide box office in 19 days of release. That’s the fastest ever for an animated film.
It stands as the highest grossing movie of 2024 to date, and only one to cross $1 billion.
Inside Out 2 will be one of only 11 animated titles to have ever surpassed the $1 billion mark — and eight out of the 11 belong to Walt Disney Animation Studios or Pixar.
“We’re absolutely thrilled to have reached this phenomenal milestone in record time, and it once again proves that global audiences will come out for a great movie,” Tony Chambers, EVP, Theatrical Distribution, said. “The film’s remarkable success is a testament not only to the incredible creativity of the Pixar team but an example of moviegoing at its very best.”
The box office achievement followed a hot streak in theaters in which the film had a record opening, a massive second weekend and tremendous weekday numbers showing how much Inside Out 2 has become an event for audiences.
Inside Out 2 has also been a big hit with critics. The film is Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes with critics praising the film’s visuals, cast, and clever yet in-depth storytelling. It also received an “A” CinemaScore and a Rotten Tomatoes audience score of 96%.
But the success of Inside Out 2 will not end at the box office.
The Walt Disney Company has a unique ability to not just help foster cultural events and craft powerful storytelling, but to go beyond storytelling to build enduring franchises that stand the test of time via film, TV, streaming, attractions, merchandising, events, and more.
Since racking up $858 million in 2015 and earning an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, Inside Out has gone on to become one of Pixar’s most beloved and recognizable titles. The brand can be found everywhere from shorts to merchandise to attractions, and the love for the Inside Out franchise is only likely to grow following the record success of its sequel.
Pete Docter — Chief Creative Officer of Pixar and director of 2015’s Inside Out — has said that the first film has “continued to be part of the conversation” since it opened nearly a decade ago, which led to the creation of the sequel.
“We hear from people saying, ‘This movie changed the way I think about parenting,’ or ‘The way I understand my own existence’ and like, whoa, that’s pretty heavy for a cartoon,” he noted. “Maybe there’s more to be done with this world?”
Docter added that telling amazing stories like Inside Out 2 is “really the root of what Pixar is about.”
“We’re not an animation studio — we say we are, but ultimately we’re a storytelling studio,” he said. “You might think our movies are about cars or bugs or monsters, but they’re really about us at the core. They’re about our experiences as human beings that we hope will then resonate with the audience.”
As expected, Inside Out 2 continues to rule the box office on its third weekend as the biggest film of 2024. After grossing $17 million stateside on Friday, Pixar’s blockbuster sequel is on track to finish the weekend with about $60 million in domestic receipts and top $1 billion worldwide.
Inside Out 2 entered the weekend with $863 in total receipts, surpassing the first Inside Out film’s $858.8 million gross back in 2015.
There is no doubt that Pixar’s film was inevitably going to cross $1 billion globally, it’s just a question of when — specifically, whether it will cross that magical threshold over the weekend or on Monday. Since the sequel reached $900 million Friday, and at present all signs point to Inside Out 2 having enough momentum to carry it over the finish line Sunday.
That’s great news for Pixar and for theaters in a year destined to fall short of even last year’s mixed box office business. Headed into the weekend, 2024 was down 21% compared to last year, and last year was down 21% compared to pre-Covid box office. With few blockbusters left this summer that have potential to play at the billion dollar level, the celebration taking place over Inside Out 2’s box office is definitely deserved, but shouldn’t be confused with a sign that theatrical is recovering to any serious extent yet.
Elsewhere this weekend, A Quiet Place: Day One looks to finish at $50-55 million as the main challenger to Inside Out 2’s reign. There’s a chance the horror sequel could win a photo-finish race for the weekend’s top spot on the charts, but I’m not convinced yet that word of mouth is strong enough to carry A Quiet Place: Day One past Inside Out 2.
For now, though, A Quiet Place: Day One put up the best first day for the franchise at $20 million, and reviews are strong at 84% “fresh” via Rotten Tomatoes — Top Critics featured on the site likewise gave it an 81% “fresh.” Audiences are harder to gauge, because the B+ grade from viewers via Cinemascore is the sort that can tilt either good or bad for a movie’s legs.
The first A Quiet Place actually garnered a B+ from audiences as well, but the sequel A Quiet Place 2 topped that with an A- grade. Yet despite the higher grade, the second movie grossed $297 million worldwide, compared to the first film’s $341 million cume. That’s a significant difference for a film graded slightly better — except the sequel arrived just in time for summer of 2020 and the Covid pandemic’s arrival, which put a damper on box office, to put it mildly.
We’ll see whether A Quiet Place: Day One can prove the franchise was just waiting for a chance to break out again and put those early Covid numbers to shame. But this is why it’s hard to know for sure how the results will shake out, because that B+ grade and the fact the second film faced a major pandemic slowdown make it difficult to tell just how sustained and deep the interest is for the latest Quiet Place chapter.
With good reviews and an audience grade on par with the first film, and with audiences currently inclined toward enthusiasm at the box office again, A Quiet Place: Day One should at least top the second film’s gross and make a run at the original’s bigger numbers. And the premium theaters where A Quiet Place: Day One is doing especially strong business will help it in its efforts to not only top the first film’s opening weekend.
Regardless of these factors and some buzz suggesting A Quiet Place: Day One could top the weekend charts, I think there’s too much distance to make up for the horror sequel to catch up to Inside Out 2, which will have one of the biggest third weekends in cinema history.
Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 is looking at a $12-15 million debut weekend, which is far too low to make this $100 million-budgeted epic western financially successful. The film needs to top $250 million just to cover costs, and at this rate that’s simply not a realistic hope. If it opens to the same internationally this weekend, then it would still probably need a nearly 10x final multiplier to break even.
The next major box office news arrives this week, when Despicable Me 4 takes control of theaters for the long July 4th holiday, setting up an animation-dominant weekend alongside Inside Out 2. These will almost surely be the first two billion dollar movies of the year. Hopefully they won’t be the last — and Deadpool & Wolverine will do its best to make sure they aren’t, when it arrives July 26th.
Source: CNN, Forbes
