Amy Poehler and Maya Hawke speak joy and fear, respectively, in Disney and Pixar’s “Inside Out 2.”
Disney | Pixar
Disney and Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” is the newest member of the billion-dollar club.
The animated film grossed $1.014 billion worldwide on Sunday, making it the highest-grossing film of 2024 and the first film since Warner Bros.’s “Barbie” to reach $1 billion at the global box office reached.
“On behalf of theater owners across the country and around the world, we want to congratulate Disney’s ‘Inside Out 2’ on grossing $1 billion faster than any other animated film in history,” said Michael O’Leary, president and CEO of the National Association of Theater Owners. “The film’s overwhelming global success demonstrates once again that audiences around the world respond to compelling, entertaining films and want to enjoy them on the big screen.”
The billion-dollar benchmark is a much-needed victory for Disney’s Pixar animation center. Pixar, a once hugely successful studio, has suffered at the box office as a result of the pandemic. Many of the difficulties are due in part to Disney’s decision to release a handful of animated films directly to the Disney+ streaming service during theater closures and even after theaters reopened.
As a result, prior to “Inside Out 2,” no Disney animated film from Pixar or its Walt Disney Animation Studio has 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. According to data from EntTelligence, this underserved audience accounted for more than 70% of viewers at the film’s domestic premiere.
While those audiences flocked to Universal’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which grossed more than $1.36 billion at the global box office, there was little to get them excited about until the recent releases of could Sony’s “The Garfield Movie” and Paramounts “IF.”
“Inside Out 2” also attracted the coveted teen demographic to theaters, with 14% of foot traffic coming from the 13-17 age group. This younger generation has largely disappeared from the market in recent years.
As the future of cinema, this group is particularly important for the industry. Bringing them back to the big screen is a top priority for studios and cinema operators.
Next up for families and teens is Universal and Illumination’s “Despicable Me 4,” which hits theaters the Fourth of July holiday weekend.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC.
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2024-06-30 15:46:24
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