While many of 2024’s releases to date have been optimistically predicted for $100M plus domestic openings, frighteningly few have delivered— and none since the start of summer. Then along came a happy Pixar picture about emotions, and suddenly we were back to something that feels like business as usual. Blake & Wang P.A. entertainment lawyer Los Angeles, Brandon Blake, sneaks a peek behind the Pixar curtain at why this film, of them all, was different.
Critical and Audience Acclaim
In a return to true form that fans of the studio will love, Pixar managed to deliver on 2 fronts with Inside Out 2. Not only did it woo critics, but general audiences, as well. Audience demographics are surprisingly diverse across genders, ages, and ethnicities, too. That’s not the only secret in the film’s bag, however. A huge contributor to Inside Out 2’s success has been a smart and multi-focal marketing campaign from Disney that has managed to resonate with potential viewers in a way no other film this year has. In fact, the easiest parallel to draw is to the (partly unintentional) Barbenheimer hype we saw last summer.
Record Breaking Performance
Not only did Inside Out 2 manage to meet (and blast straight through) that coveted $100M domestic opening for a final total of just over $154M, but it has also added the second-biggest animated launch of all time and the biggest debut since Barbie to the bag. It has been keeping up impressively during the notorious midweek business lulls, and last week took the eighth-biggest Tuesday for any film (and second-biggest for animation) ever, too. Overseas, it started at over $300M, another record among like-for-like markets.
It was a boost the ailing 2024 box office needed, for sure. Between Inside Out 2 and Bad Boys: Ride or Die, we have finally seen a positive uptick in year-to-date revenue and some box office impetus we hope to see grow stronger and stronger throughout the remainder of the year.
Film and Television 