Inside Out 2 Is Already One Of The Highest Grossing Movies Of All Time

Disney and Pixar's "Inside Out 2" remains the feel good box office story of the year. After the first half of 2024 made it feel like the sky was falling, with ticket sales coming in far below 2023 levels, this animated sequel arrived to save the day. On its fourth weekend in theaters, despite heavy competition from Gru and the Minions, Pixar's latest has made its way into the history books as one of the 25 highest-grossing movies of all time. What's most impressive is that the movie still has a lot of gas left in the tank.

Even though "Despicable Me 4" had a record-setting, chart-topping debut of $75 million domestically over the weekend (and $122.6 million across its full five-day Fourth of July opening), "Inside Out 2" managed to hold onto the number two spot with an estimated $30 million domestic haul. It dropped just 48% from the previous weekend despite a new, family-friendly animated film entering the marketplace. The Pixar sequel also pulled in a stellar $78.3 million overseas and has now amassed $533.8 million domestically to go with $683.1 million internationally for a running total of $1.216 billion worldwide.

With that, "Inside Out 2" has passed the total of "Iron Man 3" ($1.215 billion) to enter the top 25 all-time globally. It sits just behind "The Fate of the Furious" ($1.236 billion) and "Incredibles 2" ($1.243 billion). The sequel will pass both of those sometime on Monday. When it does, it will become Pixar's biggest movie ever, which is a remarkable accomplishment. It will also do so in just 25 days of release, which is truly astounding. Especially since, for a moment, it seemed like Pixar might be losing its luster after "Lightyear" bombed and after "Elemental" opened soft last summer. The narrative has certainly changed.

"Elemental" had a turnaround for the ages last year, becoming the biggest original movie of the pandemic era at the box office on its way to a $496.4 million worldwide gross. That gave room for optimism and director Kelsey Mann's blockbuster follow-up to 2015's "Inside Out" has now further provided hope that Pixar is still a very viable brand that audiences care about. It didn't help that "Soul," "Luca," and "Turning Red" all went directly to Disney+ during the pandemic. Still, Disney CEO Bob Iger is committed to getting the animation house back on track, and that seems to be working.

The question now is just how high "Inside Out 2" can climb. At this point, a finish of $1.5 billion worldwide is all but guaranteed. If that happens, it will pass "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" ($1.36 billion), "Barbie" ($1.44 billion), and "Top Gun: Maverick" ($1.49 billion) to become the third-biggest movie of the pandemic era behind only "Spider-Man: No Way Home" ($1.9 billion) and "Avatar: The Way of Water" ($2.32 billion), which stands as the third-biggest movie ever behind only "Avengers: Endgame" ($2.79 billion) and "Avatar" ($2.92 billion).

If it can do more than $1.52 billion, "Inside Out 2" will even overtake 2012's "The Avengers" to land in the top 10 all time. Beyond that, the film would need to overtake the likes of 2019's "The Lion King" ($1.66 billion) and "Jurassic World" ($1.67 billion) to move any further up the charts. We'll see where the chips fall but no matter what happens at this point, Joy, Sadness, and the rest of Riley's emotions have made their way into the history books.

"Inside Out 2" is currently playing in theaters.