Amy Poehler and Maya Hawke voice Joy and Worry, respectively, in Disney and Pixar's “Inside Out 2.”
Disney | Pixar
Disney and Pixar's “Inside Out 2” is the latest member of the billion-dollar club.
The animated film has grossed $1.014 billion worldwide through Sunday, making it the highest-grossing film of 2024 and the first film since Warner Bros.' “Barbie” to cross $1 billion at the global box office.
“On behalf of movie theater owners across the country and around the world, we want to congratulate Disney's Inside Out 2 on earning $1 billion faster than any animated film in history,” said Michael O'Leary, president and CEO of National. Theater Owners Association. “The film’s incredible global success demonstrates once again that audiences around the world will respond to engaging and entertaining films, and that they want to enjoy them on the big screen.”
The billion-dollar benchmark is a much-needed win for Disney's animation powerhouse Pixar. The Pixar studio was widely successful, but struggled at the box office in the wake of the pandemic. Much of the difficulty came, in part, because Disney chose to debut a host of animated features directly on its Disney+ streaming service while movie theaters were closed and even after theaters reopened.
As a result, prior to “Inside Out 2,” no animated film produced by Disney or its Walt Disney Animation studio had grossed more than $480 million at the global box office since 2019.
“Inside Out 2” also showed how important family audiences are to the box office. This underserved audience made up more than 70% of the movie’s domestic premiere attendance, according to data from EntTelligence.
While that audience came out in droves to see Universal's “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” which grossed more than $1.36 billion at the global box office, there wasn't much to enjoy until the recent releases of Sony “Garfield Movie” and Paramount “if.”
“Inside Out 2” also led the coveted teen segment into theaters, with 14% of viewers coming from those ages 13-17. This younger generation has been largely absent from the market in recent years.
As the future of cinema, this collection is of particular importance to the industry. Bringing them back to the big screen has become a top priority for studios and movie theater operators.
The next movie for families and teens is Universal and Illumination's “Despicable Me 4,” which is set to hit theaters over the Fourth of July holiday.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC.
