‘Inside Out 2’ Review: Anxiety Attempts A Takeover In A Fantastic Pixar Sequel

Rebecca Rubin Senior Film and Media Reporter Will audiences care about the world of “A Quiet Place” without John Krasinski or Emily Blunt? That’ll be the presiding question as “A Quiet Place: Day One,” a prequel story in Paramount’s post-apocalyptic horror series, hits theaters on Friday. The film, which takes place a while before the Abbotts (the family at the center of the prior two movies) were forced into hiding from terrifying, sound-hunting creatures, is expected to collect a solid $40 million to $50 million in its opening weekend. The prequel cost $67 million to produce.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor SPOILER WARNING: This story mentions major spoilers for “Inside Out 2,” now playing in theaters. “Inside Out 2” sees Riley hit puberty. Along with that, her five core emotions — Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust — find themselves joined by Ennui, Embarrassment, Envy and Anxiety. Teenage Riley is at a hockey camp for the weekend when the emotions hit hardest.

It’s no secret that theaters are struggling, and 2024 was shaping up to be another disappointing year. You know it’s a rough year when we’re already at the end of June, and “Dune: Part Two” is the highest grossing film worldwide ($711 million).

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Inside Out 2” enjoyed a stellar second weekend at the South Korean box office, comfortably beating local thriller “Hijack 1971.” The Pixar animation recorded a week-on-week drop of only 15% to score $10.3 million between Friday and Sunday, according to data from Kobis the box office tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic). Its market share through the weekend was a powerful 70%. Those performances give the film a $28 million cumulative after 12 days in Korean cinemas.

just as joyous for “Inside Out 2.”The Pixar sequel collected $100 million in ticket sales in its second weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday, setting a new record for an animated movie in its follow-up frame in theaters.The previous best second weekend for an animated title was the $92 million for “The Super Mario Bros. Movie.” Only six movies ever have had better second weekends.In just a week and a half, “Inside Out 2” has become 2024’s highest-grossing film to date with $724.4 million globally, including $355.2 million in US and Canadian theaters.That passes the $711.8 million worldwide total of “Dune: Part Two.” “Inside Out 2” will likely blow through the $1 billion mark in about a week, which would make it the first film since “Barbie” to do so.The extent of the “Inside Out 2” success startled Hollywood, which had grown accustomed to lower expectations as the film industry watched ticket sales this year slump about 40% below pre-pandemic totals, according to data firm Comscore, before “Inside Out 2” came along.The record haul for “Inside Out 2,” though, recalled past years when $1 billion grosses were more commonplace for the Walt Disney Co.It is also a much-needed blockbuster for Pixar, which after experimenting with direct-to-streaming releases, reconsidered its movie pipeline and approach to mass-audience appeal.Now, “Inside Out 2,” which dipped a mere 35% from its $154 million domestic debut, is poised to challenge “The Incredibles 2” ($1.2 billion) for the all-time top grossing Pixar release.It could also steer the venerated animation factory toward more sequels.

Rebecca Rubin Senior Film and Media Reporter After just two weekends of release, “Inside Out 2” is towering above the rest as the highest-grossing movie of the year. Disney and Pixar’s sequel has generated $355 million in North America and $724 million globally to date, overtaking the previous record holder of “Dune: Part II” ($282 million domestically and $711 million worldwide). At this rate, it’ll soon be the first movie of 2024 to cross $1 billion worldwide.

Inside Out 2 is officially the biggest movie of the year in North America!

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor SPOILER WARNING: This story mentions major spoilers for “Inside Out 2,” now playing in theaters. Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” continues to bring joy to audiences around the world, dominating the global box office. The sequel to 2015’s “Inside Out” picks up with Riley, now a teenager about to go to hockey camp when puberty hits. Enter a range of emotions that include Ennui, Embarrassment and Anxiety.

Whoever wrote that the theatrical business is dead may want to run a correction as Disney/Pixar’s Inside Out 2 is potentially headed to a historic second weekend for an animated movie, topping Illumination/Universal’s Super Mario Bros Movie‘s $92.3M.

After the best opening box office weekend of 2024, it’s safe to declare that “Inside Out 2” is the much-needed success Pixar hoped it would be. But has the sequel righted the studio’s ship entirely? Only time will tell there, but its continued success this week foretells the film may end up, against all odds, the movie of the summer, if not the year.

Refresh for latest…: Wednesday was yet another joyous day for Disney/Pixar’s Inside Out 2 as the sequel set opening benchmarks in new overseas releasing markets. The full offshore day was $29M (22% of the weekend), lifting the international box office cume to $203.3M in 42 markets, and global to $438.7M. The half a billion worldwide mark is around the corner.

Pete Docter, the Chief Creative Officer at Pixar Animation Studios, is teasing the Inside Out spinoff series coming to Disney+ in 2025.

Second biggest domestic animated opening of all-time at $154.2M, and second largest for Pixar: Behind Disney/Pixar’s own Incredibles 2 ($182.6M) and ahead of Illumination/Universal’s Super Mario Bros Movie‘s 3-day of $146.3M. Pixar are now responsible for 3 of the top 4 domestic animated openings of all-time.The biggest opening for an animated movie worldwide at $295M: That is when using current exchange rates and in like-for-like markets; higher than Super Mario Bros Movie.

Disney/Pixar‘s Inside Out 2 continues to electric boogaloo at the box office with a Monday of $22.2M, the second highest Monday ever for a Pixar movie after 2018’s Incredibles 2‘s $23.6M.

Theatrical giant AMC Entertainment posted its highest attendance and admissions revenue of any weekend in 2024 this past Fri-Sun. at locations in the U.S. and globally with the one-two punch of Disney/Pixar’s Inside Out 2 debut, and Sony’s Bad Boys: Ride Or Die.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” leaped to a crushing first place debut at the South Korean box office on its opening weekend. The American animation film earned $12.3 million from 1.75 million ticket sales between Friday and Sunday, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic). Over the five days since its Wednesday debut, it accumulated $14.7 million and 2.08 million ticket sales.

Inside Out 2.” The animated sequel earned $155 million in ticket sales from 4,440 theaters in the U.S. and Canada, according to studio estimates Sunday.Not only is it the second-highest opening weekend in Pixar’s 29 years of making films and the second-biggest animated opening ever (behind only the $182.7 million launch of “Incredibles 2” in 2018); It’s also the biggest of 2024, and since “Barbie.” With an estimated $140 million from international showings, “Inside Out 2” had a staggering, and record-breaking, $295 million global start.Tony Chambers, who heads theatrical distribution for Disney, was confident that the film would do “extremely well.” But even he was surprised at how much it exceeded already high expectations.“People go to the theaters for great movies,” Chambers said.

Jack Dunn SPOILER ALERT: This story discusses major plot points, including the ending for “Inside Out 2” now playing in theaters. “Inside Out 2” director Kelsey Mann and producer Mark Nielsen held “a good 25 meetings” in preparation for the film’s climactic scene — when Riley, the movie’s teenage protagonist, suffers an anxiety attack. But these weren’t any average production discussions, they were “the gatherings of the mind council,” which summoned all the department heads together to strategize the execution of the scene. “Simulation, effects, lighting and animation all together like, “‘How are we going to do this?'” Neilsen tells Variety.

We got a hit on our hands as Disney/Pixar’s Inside Out 2 clocked $13M from previews yesterday that began at 3PM, the best so far in 2024 beating Dune Part Two‘s $12M. The current Rotten Tomatoes scores are a 93% Certified Fresh rating from critics and 95% from moviegoers, setting up the movie for a potential $100M+ opening weekend. The running overseas cume is $22.3M. Look for Inside Out 2 to blow past its $135M global opening projection.

Karen Idelson First-time feature film director Kelsey Mann dug deep into his own emotions while making “Inside Out 2.” As he imagined a story about the confusing journey we all go on through puberty, he knew he would need to add new emotions to the ones from the first animated hit — so Anxiety, Envy, Ennui and Embarrassment join the fray in main character Riley’s developing mind. At the Annecy Animation Festival, Mann will appear at a special screening of the Pixar film June 14 and will serve as Disney Art Challenge jury president. The theme of this year’s event will be “Adolescence: So many emotions.” He spoke to Variety about the new film.