Inside Out 2 Passes Two Pixar Favorites During Box Office Run

Inside Out 2 continues to pour it on at the box office. The Pixar animated movie just crossed $500 million at the domestic box office with no slowdown in sight. This feat puts Inside Out 2 above other Disney animated favorites like Toy Story 3 ($1.06 B) and Toy Story 4 ($1.07 B). That gaudy total signals the kind of dominance that a lot of people were looking for when Disney announced their intention to make a follow-up to a beloved animated feature. Spectators couldn’t have dreamed of this success. Inside Out 2 is the first movie of 2024 to reach 1 billion dollars at the box office. As the highest grossing movie of this calendar year, there is still time for it to rack up even more for that final total. This week sees a major challenger in Despicable Me 4. But, that project will probably have a long way to go before it reaches a billion dollars too.

ComicBook spoke to director Kelsey Mann about expectations that come with a big movie like this. Pressure is nothing new for Pixar. The filmmaker remembered something that Pete Docter said about Inside Out 2 early in the ideas stage for the movie. Basically, they had to be very sure they were making it out of love for the project rather than to just churn out a sequel.

“Here’s the thing, Pete Docter directed the original film when he was Chief Creative Officer. When he came to me and said, ‘I think there’s potential to do another one. But, if we don’t find anything we’re excited about, we won’t make it,’” Mann said. “We wanted to make sure we were making a sequel for the right reason.”

Inside Out 2 Bests The First Movie At The Box Office

As the box office counter continues to go up, if you’re one of the people who haven’t seen Inside Out 2 yet, you might be wondering if the sequel is actually better than the first movie? ComicBook’s Charlie Ridgely reviewed the Pixar sequel for our site and thinks that the magic is still definitely there. In his review, our critic praised the way that Inside Out 2 manages to weave in new emotions while still maintaining the warmth and charm of the first entry. Pixar discourse has been at an all time high over the last few years. Inside Out 2‘s performance should put a lot of that to bed.

“There’s no feeling in the world quite like being proven wrong when you’ve wildly underestimated a movie. There’s something so satisfying about a brilliant piece of art letting you know your doubt was misplaced. When Pixar announced a sequel to Inside Out, it felt so unnecessary, like another Disney cash-grab designed with just the box office in mind,” Ridgely argued. “But I should’ve known better. Pixar has a track record that shouldn’t be doubted, and Inside Out 2 again proved why the studio has been at the top of the animation game for nearly three decades. Inside Out 2, like its predecessor, is a beautiful and poignant film, the kind that only Pixar could’ve produced. And it’s exactly the movie we need at this specific moment in time.”

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