Amy Poehler and Maya Hawke provide the voices of Joy and Anxiety, 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 had grossed $1.014 billion worldwide as of Sunday, making it the highest-grossing film of 2024 and the first film to surpass $1 billion at the global box office since Warner Bros.’ “Barbie.”
“On behalf of cinema owners across the country and around the world, I congratulate Disney’s Inside Out 2 for reaching $1 billion at the box office faster than any animated film in history,” said Michael O’Leary, president and CEO of the National Association of Cinema Owners. “The film’s incredible global success proves once again that audiences around the world respond to compelling, entertaining movies and want to be entertained on the big screen.”
The $1 billion milestone is a much-anticipated win for Disney’s animation division, Pixar. A once-prolific and successful studio, Pixar has struggled at the box office since the pandemic hit, with much of that woes attributable to Disney’s decision to release several animated movies directly to its streaming service, Disney+, while theaters were closed and even after they reopened.
As a result, prior to “Inside Out 2,” no Disney animated film from Pixar or its subsidiary Walt Disney Animation Studios had grossed more than $480 million worldwide since 2019.
“Inside Out 2” demonstrated just how important family audiences are to the box office: this underserved audience made up more than 70% of the audience during the film’s domestic premiere, according to EntTelligence data.
Universal’s “Super Mario Bros. The Movie” grossed more than $1.36 billion worldwide, but audiences still flocked to the recently released “Super Mario Bros. The Movie” Sony “The Garfield Movie” Paramount “if.”
“Inside Out 2” drew 14 percent of its audience from 13- to 17-year-olds, bringing some much-needed teen demographic into theaters, a demographic that has been all but absent from the movie market in recent years.
This generation represents the future of moviegoing and is particularly important to the film industry, so getting them back to the big screen is a top priority for film studios and cinema operators.
Next up for fun for families and teens is Universal and Illumination’s “Despicable Me,” which is scheduled to hit theaters over the Fourth of July holiday weekend.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC.
