Inside Out 2 Becomes Pixar’s Highest Grossing Movie of All Time

Inside Out 2 is officially Pixar’s top-grossing movie of all time. After passing The Incredibles 2, the Disney sequel is now the fourth biggest animated movie ever. Wildly enough, Inside Out 2 still has a chance to climb even higher than that before everything is said and done. Each week brings new contenders at the box office, but the Pixar follow-up continues to net a couple million despite a crowded field. Inside Out 2 has amassed a dizzying $1.2 billion, which includes $543 million in North America. Within a few days’ time, the Pixar sequel could pass up both Frozen and last year’s Super Mario Bros. Movie. (They sit at $1.27 billion and $1.36 billion respectively.)

One big cause for optimism is the fact that there are still markets where Inside Out 2 hasn’t opened yet. Japan is a market where Disney thinks some gains could be within reach. Also, for movies of this size, re-watching and repeat theater visits are likely going to be key as well. Analysts note that this will be the first Gen Z-powered nostalgia hit. (A lot of our middle school or teenage viewers saw Inside Out back in 2015 and want to revisit the better days.) Add all of those factors in with the idea that a Disney+ release is still many months out and it seems well poised to challenge for the number one ranked animated movie ever at the box office.

Inside Out 2 Benefits From A Wealth Of Ideas

One big strength of Inside Out 2 is the fact that the original concept had such broad appeal. The playground of Riley’s mind is so vast, (and honestly expanding), that there was a lot of room to operate with Inside Out 2. ComicBook sat down with writer Meg LeFauve to talk about the sequel and some of the ideas that had to stay on the cutting room floor. There are whole emotions that they kicked the tires on including and then decided against it. 

“We had a fisherman for ideas named Gail, and we went to the Facts and Opinions factory and saw how those were made. And that was super fun” LeFauve told us. “I think in terms of emotionally, we really tried for quite a while to have Shame in the movie, and Guilt. Shame being more self-loathing, that thing that attacks you. And we talked to a lot of experts about it. The difference with shame is really not a great thing for you because it is just about attacking you. Whereas guilt is about taking responsibility and it’s a behavior, not who you are.

“But it really just never quite clicked. And for this version, because we really needed to center on Anxiety, it start to bifurcate too much of the storyline. But I do think we all have that self-loathing critic in our head, and we got to go there a little bit with the projections and how Anxiety can start to do that to you. So I think it’s in the movie, but that was one thing we explored that we didn’t ultimately feel was fruitful for this version.”

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