Can you feel it? There’s a new No. 1 film of 2024 around the world. Inside Out 2 — 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 made $728.6 million worldwide so far after two weekends of release. That means that after two weekends in theaters, Inside Out 2 is now the highest-grossing film of 2024 worldwide.
The box office achievement followed a massive second weekend for the film in which Inside Out 2 brought in $101 million domestically. That makes Inside Out 2 only the seventh film in history to make $100 million in its second weekend. It dropped just 35% from its a record-breaking opening two weekends ago. Inside Out 2 also had the best second weekend ever for an animated film and the best second weekend percentage drop for any film to open over $150 million.
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 storytelling. It also received an “A” CinemaScore and a Rotten Tomatoes audience score of 96%.
Director Kelsey Mann said that he really wanted to direct Inside Out 2 because he “felt like there was more story to tell.” “At the end of the first film, Joy asked the audience a question. She says, ‘after all Riley is 12 now, what could happen?’ Well, I wanted to answer that question,” he said. Mann added that his hope for the film — which welcomes new Emotions such as Anxiety — is to “tell a story that made some teenagers lives that much easier.” “It’s all about navigating those different emotions,” he said. “A lot of it is me trying to connect to myself as a teenager and all the changes that I went through at that time that helped me get through all the changes I’m going to go through as a director.”
It’s an emotional day for Pixar and parent company Disney. On Wednesday, Inside Out 2 passed up Incredibles 2 ($1.242 billion) to become the top-grossing Pixar title of all time at the worldwide box office, not adjusted for inflation. That puts it at No. 4 on the overall list of top-grossing animated films, and the climb is far from done, meaning it could ultimately rank No. 1.
Inside Out 2 finished Tuesday with $1.251 billion in global ticket sales, including $543.5 million in North America, where it’s already the third-biggest animated pic of all time, and $708 million internationally, where is the eighth-biggest animated title ever.
The movie is within days of overtaking Walt Disney Animation’s Frozen ($1.274 billion), and is also virtually assured of jumping Illumination and Universal’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie ($1.361 billion). Whether it can overtake Frozen II ($1.451 billion) and take the No. 1 crown is the biggest question mark, but many believe it can.
Inside Out 2 has yet to open in Japan, where the forecast is sunny (in South Korea, it has earned $49 million, a staggering sum that Disney believes bodes well for Japan). Throughout Asia, Europe and North America, the film is being fueled not only by families, but also by teenagers and younger female adults who grew up watching the first Inside Out, released in 2015.
The sequel is also doing historic business across Latin America. Outside of North America, Mexico leads all market with a record-smashing $91.5 million, followed by $58.9 in Brazil. Europe has produced better-than-expected returns, led by $52.4 million in the U.K./Ireland and followed by $41 million in Italy. It has even won over the German box office, which isn’t known for adoring animation (Germany’s total is $33 million).
Domestically, Inside Out 2 will pass up Super Mario ($575 million) next week on the all-time animation list, leaving only Incredibles 2 to conquer (that film topped out at $609 million in North America. Another feat: It has surpassed Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight to rank No. 17 on the overall list of top-grossing movies domestically, whether animated or live-action.
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.
The movie has become a cultural talking point about the emotional changes puberty brings, and is being championed by many educators and psychologists as a teaching moment.
Inside Out 2, earning stellar reviews and a record-best audience score, has shattered numerous records since its release in early June, including crossing $1 billion club at the global box office in record time for an animated film, or just 19 days.
The Pixar film is by far the top-grossing film of 2024 to date, and the first movie since Barbie almost a year ago to join the billion-dollar club. Among animated movies, it’s the 11th film to achieve the milestone. Disney dominates that list, laying claim to eight of those releases, whether Pixar or Walt Disney Animation titles.
Inside Out 2 is a needed win for Pixar, which suffered a major setback when three of its movies were sent straight to streaming by the previous regime at Disney and before the return of Bob Iger as CEO.
Amy Poehler — who plays Joy — leads the ensemble voice cast. The roster of stars 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.
In 2015, Inside Out topped out at $858.8 million globally.
“Inside Out 2” is officially Pixar’s highest-grossing movie of all time. The massively popular animated movie which anthropomorphizes emotions as characters has now grossed $1,251,434,061 at the worldwide box office, according to The Numbers, which reflects studio reports. On top of Pixar’s highest-grossing film, that massive figure places the 2024 film as the 23rd highest-grossing film of all-time at the worldwide box office, a list topped by some of the biggest titles in films such as “Avatar” (2009), “Avengers: Endgame” (2019), and “Titanic” (1997). In capturing Pixar’s top spot, “Inside Out 2” leaped over “Incredibles 2,” now in the No. 24 spot, grossing $1,242,805,359 since its 2018 release. A scene from “Inside Out 2.” PIXAR The original “Inside Out,” which came out in 2015, still holds a place on the highest-grossing movies worldwide list sitting at No. 88, having grossed $850,309,035 worldwide, according to The Numbers. Editor’s Picks “Inside Out 2” also holds the No. 1 spot on the worldwide box office chart for 2024 releases with a significant lead over “Dune: Part Two” which grossed $710,865,636. “Inside Out 2” was directed by Kelsey Mann and picks up where the 2015 film left off. Riley (Kensington Tallman), now 13 and entering her teenage years, navigates life with a kaleidoscope of emotions in her mind, including Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Fear (Tony Hale), Disgust (Liza Lapira) and Anger (Lewis Black) — characters familiar from the first film. “Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust, who’ve long been running a successful operation by all accounts, aren’t sure how to feel when Anxiety shows up. And it looks like she’s not alone,” read a synopsis of the film. Joining the original crew are a group of new emotions: Anxiety (Maya Hawke), Envy (Ayo Edebiri), Ennui (Adèle Exarchopoulos), Embarrassment (Paul Walter Hauser) and even a few brief moments of Nostalgia (June Squibb). Disney is the parent company of Pixar, ABC News, and “Good Morning America.”
As it continues its mind-blowing trajectory, and with Tuesday’s receipts now included, Disney/Pixar’s Inside Out 2 has become the highest-grossing Pixar movie of all time at the worldwide box office. On Tuesday, it passed Pixar’s Incredibles 2 ($1.243B) to get to this latest milestone. The running global cume on Inside Out 2 through Tuesday is $1,251.5M which makes the Kelsey Mann-directed juggernaut the No. 4 animated film ever on a worldwide basis. As a reminder, Japan still has yet to open on August 1.
Riley, Joy, Anxiety, Fear, Ennui and Co next have Frozen in their sights, looking to overtake its $1.285B in the next few days — likely over the weekend — to become the No. 3 animated film of all time globally.
The international box office crossed the seven-century mark yesterday with the overseas total through Tuesday now standing at $708M. Domestic is $543.5M. On Tuesday, Inside Out 2 grossed an additional $11.8M from 45 material offshore markets (15% of the most recent weekend which had seen a terrific drop of just 31% from the prior frame). Inside Out 2 remains the No. 8 animated film, and biggest Pixar title, of all time internationally.
The Top 5 overseas markets to date are: Mexico ($91.5M — IO2 became the biggest movie ever in the market last weekend), Brazil ($58.9M), UK ($52.4M), Korea ($49M) and Italy ($41M).
Inside Out 2 remains the No. 17 industry film of all time domestically, as well as the No. 3 animated movie ever domestically.
Source: The Walt Disney Company, The Numbers, ABC News
