Inside Out 2 Breaks Box Office Records! Win for Pixar?
Last weekend Inside Out 2 dropped in theaters, opening to a fantastic opening weekend. We got the numbers for the second weekend and they're also fantastic. With these numbers I wanted to talk about why Inside Out 2 is crushing it at the box office.
OPENING WEEKEND: I didn’t get a chance to talk about what the numbers were for the opening weekend. A couple of weeks before Inside Out 2 hit theaters, the opening weekend projections were looking to be between $80-$90 million. It would have been the biggest opening weekend for a Pixar film since Toy Story 4. Rivaling Dune: Part II for the biggest opening of 2024. By the end of the weekend, it ended up making $154 million in the United States. Its worldwide opening weekend was about $294 million, the biggest worldwide opening for a Pixar film. With this, it had the second biggest opening weekend for an animated film, behind Incredibles 2.
SECOND WEEKEND: Then the question became, what would the second weekend box office be. What would its box office hold be? Well, Inside Out 2 had a 35% drop, making $100 million in its second weekend. One thing to keep in mind here, if you have a big movie open and drop over 60%, that’s not very good. A lot of Marvel movies tend to do that, they’re front loaded movies but drop off hard the second weekend. If a movie drops under 60%, it’s solid numbers. Under 50%, that’s great. Under 40%, that’s fantastic. Inside Out 2 had the best second weekend drop for an animated movie, the previous movie was The Super Mario Bros Movie. It’s the seventh movie in history for its second weekend to be $100 or more. The other movies were Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens, Avengers Endgame, Avengers: Infinity War, Black Panther, Jurassic World, and The Avengers. What’s impressive about this movie still having a $100 million weekend for its second weekend is, it opened significantly less than any of the other movies I just mentioned. All of the other movies opened to over $200 million. The fact this movie made a $100 million second weekend, it's very impressive. Right now, it’s already past Dune: Part II, domestically and worldwide to be the highest grossing movie of 2024. On its opening day, it grossed more than Lightyear did opening weekend. On its opening day, it grossed more than Wish in its entire box office run. I believe it made about $725 million after 10 days of release. That’s fantastic, it’s only a matter of time before it makes $1 billion. Right now, I wouldn’t be surprised if this is the highest grossing movie of 2024.
WIN FOR PIXAR?: Ever since this movie has been doing well for Pixar, people have been wondering if this is a win for Pixar and if Pixar is back. Obviously, it’s a massive win for Pixar. Pixar’s last two movies that were released in theaters, Lightyear and Elemental, weren’t the best performers. Lightyear was a straight up box office bomb for Pixar. Elemental opened terribly but had great legs and grossed almost $500 million, making them a little bit of money. After its second weekend, Inside Out 2 has already made more than Lightyear and Elemental combined. That’s crazy, I think this might end up being Pixar’s highest grossing film. Incredibles 2 is currently Pixar’s highest grossing; it made about $1.2 billion. But right now, Inside Out 2 might surpass that number. I think it's a win for Pixar but I think it’s a win for movies in general. The 2024 summer box office hasn’t been great. The Fall Guy and IF opened soft and below expectations but they are having solid legs. Not enough to be full on profitable, but not the box office disaster as they could have been. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes and Bad Boys: Ride or Die opened solid numbers, their opening weekends were great. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga comes out, dead on arrival. Inside Out 2 is the first movie to open over $100 million since Barbie, that’s fantastic. It's exciting that we can start talking about how well movies are doing at the box office again. People are wondering how long Inside Out 3 will be announced. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if it’s a while till we get another film. Pixar normally has long gaps between sequels. There was a nine year gap between Inside Out (2015) and Inside Out 2. 14 years between The Incredibles and Incredibles 2. Probably 2029 or 2030 before we get a third Pixar film. BUT, Pixar has put out quotes recently about sequels and they want to do more sequels in order to make up for Lightyear’s bad box office. With Inside Out 2 making a lot of money for Pixar, I wouldn’t be surprised if we get more sequels announced. I know D23 is happening in August, I’m wondering if Incredibles 3 will be announced. Maybe we’ll get further news on Toy Story 5. But as far as Inside Out 2, it’ll be a while.
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