UPDATE: 2024/06/16 08:53 EST BY BRENNAN KLEIN

Inside Out 2's Opening Weekend Balloons Even More, Becoming The Best Since 2023's Barbie

This article was originally written Saturday AM and has been updated Sunday AM with altered box office projections (in bold), a full chart, and further analysis.

Summary

• Inside Out 2's opening weekend balloons to $155 million, the best debut since 2023's Barbie.
• This box office also gives it the best opening weekend of 2024 so far, by a significant margin.
• Inside Out 2 has also earned the second highest-grossing opening weekend that Pixar has ever had.

Inside Out 2 release comes almost exactly nine full years after the original 2015 Pixar hit, which is the sixth highest-grossing Pixar movie ever with a worldwide box office total of $857.6 million.

Per Variety, as of Sunday morning, Inside Out 2 is projected to close out its opening weekend with a 3-day total of $155 million at the domestic box office. This is by far the biggest opening weekend of 2024, significantly ahead of the previous No. 1 opening, which was Dune: Part Two at $82.5 million. It is also the best opening weekend since the July 2023 premiere of the record-breaking hit Barbie and the second highest-grossing opening weekend ever for a Pixar movie, falling behind only Incredibles 2's $182.7 million, which also makes it the second-best animated opening ever.

Inside Out 2 Handily Tops The Weekend Box Office Chart

The Top 5 Had A Lot Of Movement

Naturally, Inside Out 2 has claimed the No. 1 spot on the domestic box office Top 5 chart for the weekend. However, the action sequel Bad Boys: Ride or Die had a strong hold with a $33 million week 2 haul after opening to $56.5 million. This marks the first time that both of the Top 2 movies have grossed more than $30 million since Kung Fu Panda 4 and Dune: Part Two topped the chart on the weekend of March 8, 2024. See the domestic box office Top 5 below, with the most up-to-date totals as of Sunday morning:

Outside the Top 2, there was also a great deal of movement on the domestic chart. Interestingly, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes and IF swapped positions, with the former rising to No. 3 in spite of the fact that it has already been in theaters for six weekends and the latter falling to No. 5 even as it ed the $100 million domestic milestone. The Garfield Movie box office also took quite a knock, falling from No. 2 to No. 4 as the Pixar sequel choked out the animated marketplace.

The only movie that seems to have fallen off the chart completely was the Ishana Night Shyamalan horror movie The Watchers, which had opened at No. 4 the previous weekend. However, Deadline is reporting that the movie is projected to eke out IF with a $3.66 million 3-day total. These conflicting reports may mean a neck-and-neck race for No. 5 which will be confirmed come Monday, in which case IF would take No. 6 behind The Watchers. Both are handily besting the No. 7 through No. 9 titles Furiosa, The Fall Guy, and The Strangers: Chapter 1.

The Inside Out 2 Box Office Is A Staggering Success

The New Pixar Movie Is Performing Well By Any Measure

The Inside Out 2 box office is already a success by almost any measure. In addition to having already nearly made back its $200 million budget in just one major region in a single weekend, it seems to be cementing a position in the Top 5 Pixar movies of all time by the end of its run. Considering how well it's performing compared to the original movie, which is currently No. 6 on the company's chart, it seems destined for good things. Below, see how the new movie compares with the original:

If the movie can keep up this box office lead, which is possible considering that Inside Out 2 reviews have earned it a Certified Fresh 92% Rotten Tomatoes score, its worldwide total could eventually exceed $1 billion. This would make it at least the fifth highest-grossing Pixar movie ever, behind Finding Dory ($1.03 billion), Toy Story 3 ($1.067 billion), Toy Story 4 ($1.073 billion), and Incredibles 2 ($1.24 billion). Considering how close No. 4 through No. 2 are, Inside Out 2 could follow the lead of its opening weekend and land in second place on the overall chart as well.

In addition to succeeding when compared to the original movie and Pixar's overall chart, Inside Out 2 is leading a major turnaround for the company. Although their 2023 title Elemental turned out to be a sleeper hit, Pixar has been in a period of box office doldrums since the release of Toy Story 4 in 2019. In fact, the opening weekend of this new sequel has already outgrossed the entire domestic runs of Elemental ($154.4 million) and their 2022 flop Lightyear, which only made $118.3 million in North America.

Source: Variety