Inside Out 2 is having the best second weekend ever for an animated movie.
Inside Out 2’s second weekend is looking every bit as dominant as the opening frame. The Pixar sequel is aiming towards a historic encore performance at the box office with $98 million at current estimates. That wild number would have Inside Out 2 over The Super Mario Bros. Movie‘s wild 2023 record-holder ($92 million for the Mushroom Kingdom). All of this has come as a relief to both theaters and the larger Hollywood scene. The summer box office has been start and stop as The Fall Guy managed a moderate success but did not meet lofty projections. The general malaise persisted until Bad Boys: Ride or Die kicked the door in two weeks ago. Now, with Inside Out 2 leading the charge, Hollywood has hoping the momentum has swung before Deadpool & Wolverine comes in to bat cleanup in July.
On Friday, Inside Out 2 managed a whopping $30 million. So, the projections continue to increase for the beloved Pixar sequel. The animated feature continues to follow in terms of footsteps of Barbie‘s massive success last year. (Greta Gerwig’s pink masterpiece managed more than $90 million in its second weekend too!) In a turn of events that could play as commentary on the movie business as a whole, the only movies to reach that mark in the last two years are big IP features like Mario, Barbie and Inside Out 2. There’s some real cause for celebration though as the overall box office is trending higher right now than it was at this point in 2023. So, maybe just maybe all the doom and gloom on social media was overblown? Time will tell.
Inside Out 2 Is A Breath Of Relief For Pixar
Inside Out 2’s box office just keeps climbing.
– Pixar)
Inside Out 2 actually had a ton riding on it. Public sentiment around movies in general is not exactly sky high. Social media reaction and the hot take industrial complex has chased nuance out of a lot of this conversation. Pixar, in particular, was looking for a movie to prove that the fastball is still there and they tossed this one over the dish at the speed of a meteor. The studio’s chief Pete Docter took the opportunity to reaffirm their commitment to original stories after the movie’s tremendous box office. He told EW that there wasn’t a parade of sequels coming. But, there would be some familiar faces in the coming years as well!
“One thing that I think was maybe slightly misinterpreted was the idea that we have to deliver more of what people know and maybe lean away from the personal. All of that’s true to some degree, but I think what we’re always trying to do is find what are the universal things that everybody believes, both in terms of concepts and in terms of life experience,” Docter explained.
“So, for example, I thought [as a kid] my toys came to life. I thought there were monsters that lived in the closet. We’re looking for those kinds of big, universal things that people go, ‘I already know that it’s an original idea, but it’s a concept that I had, too.’ So it’s kind of a sequel in that way,” he continued. “You know what I mean? There’s a limited number of those, so they each have to be done in a very unique way through a specific lens. We want to hold onto that, but we want to make sure that they speak widely.”
Are you going to see Inside Out 2 this weekend? Check out all the pop culture discussion at @ComicBook on social media!
