Inside Out 2 has been the biggest movie of 2024 and continues making box office history after topping $1 billion.
During its third weekend in theaters, Inside Out 2 topped $1 billion worldwide. This occurred 19 days after it came out and is the fastest time frame in which an animated movie has reached this feat. It is also the first movie to surpass $1 billion since Barbie (which made $1.4 billion during its run).
The Pixar movie topping $1 billion was led by its $54.7 million domestic haul during its third weekend. While that was a 43.4% drop from its $101.2 million haul the previous week, that was enough to top the weekend's latest releases.
A Quiet Place: Day One made franchise history with its $55 million domestic opening weekend. It still was not enough to top the Pixar sequel. Kevin Costner's Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter 1 made just $11 million during its run.
Turning Pixar's luck around
After some of Pixar's latest box office disappointments, it is a positive sign to see Inside Out 2 do so well. Of course, there are a few factors at play.
First, it is a sequel to the successful 2015 movie Inside Out. Perhaps the appetite for a sequel increased with that gap of nearly a decade between installments. The movie also featured some of Hollywood's biggest rising stars such as Maya Hawke and Ayo Edebiri.
Either way, Pixar needed a big win. Movies like Luca, Soul, Turning Red, and Onward were affected by the pandemic. Some of those went straight to Disney+ instead of getting a proper theatrical release.
Lightyear, a spin-off of the Toy Story franchise, was simply a flop. The movie made just $226 million worldwide in 2022 during its theatrical run.
Elemental had a rocky start when it opened to just $29.6 million domestically in 2023. Luckily, the movie had legs and was able to make just under $500 million worldwide.
Pixar and Disney appear content with letting Inside Out 2 stay in theaters for at least 100 days. That means it will play in theaters during the entirety of the 2024 summer movie season.
It will have some stiff competition soon. Illumination's Despicable Me 4 is coming out on July 3. Like Inside Out 2, the last installment in the main series made over $1 billion worldwide as well. Both Minions movies have either made $1 billion or were really close to it.
2024 box office at a glance
The 2024 box office has seen some hits, but Inside Out 2 is already the biggest. It is the only movie this year to make over $1 billion worldwide — the next closest is Dune: Part Two, which made $711 million. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire ($567 million) and Kung Fu Panda 4 ($543 million) both topped $500 million.
Other movies have been disappointments. Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire made just $201 million during its run, and John Krasinski's IF made $184 million. Star power could not save other movies such as The Fall Guy ($172 million) and Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga ($168 million).
Perhaps the biggest flop of the year was Madame Web, Sony's latest installment in their Spider-Man Universe. The movie barely topped $100 million worldwide despite having Dakota Johnson and Sydney Sweeney in it.
What is Inside Out 2 about?
Inside Out 2 picks up a couple of years after the first movie. Riley (Kensington Tailman) is 13 years old now and has hit puberty. When she attends a weekend hockey camp with her best friends, she is torn between one last hoorah with them and impressing the varsity kids.
Her emotions are shaken up when new ones enter the fray. Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Anger (Lewis Black), Fear (Tony Hale), and Disgust (Liza Lapira) all return from the first movie. Anxiety (Maya Hawke), Envy (Ayo Edebiri), Ennui (Adèle Exarchopoulos), and Embarrassment (Paul Walter Hauser) are the new emotions.
The two groups clash when Anxiety attempts to take over Riley's mind. They abandon her old Sense of Self, and the OG crew needs to recover it.
Inside Out 2 is in theaters.
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