“Inside Out 2” (Disney-Pixar) Photograph: Pixar/AP
The sequel to the 2015 hit film grossed $155 million at the U.S. box office, the year’s best so far, and $140 million internationally — the biggest foreign animated opening of all time.
Inside Out 2, the delayed sequel to Pixar’s 2015 animation about an 11-year-old girl’s emotions, has surpassed ticket sales predictions in its opening weekend. The film, released worldwide on Friday, was expected to reach $90m (£71m) at the US box office; in fact it grossed $155m (£122m).
This makes it not only the highest-performing film of the year so far (surpassing Dune: Part Two’s $82.5 million (£65 million)), but also the first film since last year’s Barbie ($162 million/£127 million) to gross over $100 million in its opening weekend.
The film performed impressively internationally too: it earned $140 million (£110 million), tying Frozen 2 ($135 million/£106 million) for second place as the biggest overseas animated opening of all time.
The film’s global total now stands at $295 million (£232 million), meaning it has now recouped both its original $200 million (£157 million) budget and considerable marketing spend.
Set two years after the original film, Inside Out 2 sees heroine Riley’s mind filled with a whole new set of emotions as she hits puberty, including anxiety (voiced by Maya Hawke) as Joy (the returning Amy Poehler) steps down as commander-in-chief, along with new companions ennui, embarrassment and jealousy.
The core emotions – happiness, sadness, fear, anger and disgust – are sent to the back of the mind, from where they must attempt to return to headquarters before Riley’s sense of self is completely eroded.
Pixar’s successful bet on audience investment in the story will come as a great relief to Hollywood, where anxiety was growing due to the year’s sluggish earnings. Films like The Fall Guy, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga and IF started low and then failed to bounce back, leading to soft sales in an early summer season that last saw profits in 2000.
The studio itself will be particularly pleased, too: Chief Pete Docter (who directed the first Inside Out ) feared that releasing pandemic titles like Turning Red, Soul, and Luca straight to Disney+ had gotten audiences used to a reliance on streaming.
He argued that this was why Lightyear (2022) and Elemental (2023) grossed relatively little in theaters. Yet Inside Out 2 scored the second-biggest opening in Pixar history, behind 2018’s Incredibles sequel ($182m/£143m) and ahead of the 2016 follow-up to Finding Nemo ($135m/£106m) and the fourth Toy Story movie in 2019 ($120m/£94m).
The original Doctor Who film grossed $356 million (£281 million) in the US and $859 million (£678 million) globally, as well as Oscar nominations for best original screenplay and wins for best animated feature. Reviews for the sequel have also been strong, albeit not as glowing as the first. Inside Out 2 has an A rating on CinemaScore – which tracks the opinions of cinema lovers – and a 91% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Outside the US, audiences for the film were particularly strong in Latin America, where it scored the second-biggest opening of all time behind Avengers: Endgame. It grossed $30.2 million (£23 million) in Mexico, $14.9 million (£11 million) in South Korea and $13.9 million (£10 million) in the UK. It is yet to open in key markets such as France, Italy, Spain, China and Japan.
Hopes are now high that other sequels will also help the film do well at the box office this year, starting with the fourth Despicable Me film due out in three weeks. Other major follow-ups include Joker: Folie a Deux, Gladiator 2 and the R-rated Deadpool and Wolverine – the only superhero offerings during the holidays.
But the strong pre-Pixar performances of “Garfield” and “IF” have helped them earn modest theatrical profits, with “Garfield” surpassing the low break-even point of its Alcon-financed $60 million production budget while “IF” crossed the $100 million mark after an opening $33 million in North America.
