Blowing the doors off expectations, Walt Disney/Pixar‘s “Inside Out 2” rocketed to the second-highest opening ever for an animated theatrical movie -- taking in $155 million over the three-day Father’s Day weekend, according to Comscore.
Movie analysts were expecting around a $90 million debut for the movie for the franchise. The film also earned a strong $140 million in international market box-office sales.
“Inside Out 2” is the first movie to cross the $100 million domestic revenue threshold in nearly a year -- since Warner Bros.' blockbuster “Barbie” in July 2023, when it pulled in an unexpected $162 million revenue opening. The first "Inside Out" movie in 2015 earned $90.4 million.
The all-time leader for a domestic theatrical animated movie is Disney/Pixar‘s own “Incredibles 2” (2018), which hit an $182.7 million box-office opening, according to IMdb Box Office Mojo.
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Disney now owns four of the top five biggest animated movie openings of all time, with “Finding Dory” (2016) at $135.1 million and “Frozen II” (2019) at $130.3 million. Universal Pictures “The Super Mario Brothers Movie” (2023) is now in third place at $146.4 million.
These results give movie studio/movie theater marketing and advertising executives hope for continuing strong summer results -- possibly helping to accelerate lagging box-office business in the first six months of 2024.
U.S. and Canada theatrical box-office revenues are down 24% season-to-date to $3.1 billion, Comscore says.
In terms of national TV advertising to market the movie, Walt Disney spent and/or benefitted from media value on its own TV networks with a total of $30.2 million for its pre-opening -- 6,830 airings resulting in 4.9 billion impressions.
Analysts believe “Inside Out” will surely revive the Pixar film brand in the wake of some of the division’s movies being sent exclusively to streaming platforms -- including Disney+. During the pandemic Walt Disney was looking to boost its young subscription video-on-demand business.
The second week of Sony’s Pictures’ “Bad Boys: Ride or Die” did not fade away. It earned a healthy $33 million in its second week, following up on its over-delivering initial opening week result of $53 million.