Inside Out 2 Just Crossed A Jaw-Dropping Box Office Milestone [Updated]

Update 7/24/24: According to Walt Disney Studios publicity, "Inside Out 2" is now officially the highest-grossing animated film of all time at the worldwide box office with $1.462 billion, and it's now the 13th highest-grossing movie of all time. As of right now, the movie is the fastest animated film to $1 billion worldwide (19 days), the highest-grossing movie of 2024 so far, and the highest-grossing film in industry history in Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, and Uruguay. Our original story from July 22, 2024 continues below.

More than five weeks into its theatrical run, "Inside Out 2" continues to break records. Disney and Pixar's blockbuster animated sequel has become the single box office story of 2024 for a variety of reasons, from bringing the storied animation studio back to its former glory days to becoming one of just a small handful of films in the pandemic era to cross the $1 billion milestone, it's been an unbelievably impressive run. Now, the film has delved even further into record-breaking territory as it has entered the top 15 all-time list of biggest global grossers.

Director Kelsey Mann's "Inside Out 2" pulled in $12.8 million this past weekend, its sixth in theaters overall. It stayed at number three on the charts, dropping just 36% compared to the prior weekend, despite stiff competition from "Despicable Me 4" and "Twisters," which topped the charts with a much bigger than expected $80.5 million. With that, the film's running total has ballooned to $596.3 million domestically to go with an unreal $846.9 million overseas for a grand total of $1.443 billion worldwide. That puts it at number 15 on the all time worldwide chart, just ahead of "Avengers: Age of Ultron" ($1.4 billion).

By the end of this sentence, it figures to pass "Barbie" ($1.445 billion), which was last year's highest-grossing movie globally. That adds a truly astonishing bit of context to just how impressive this movie's run has been. A little more context? The second biggest Hollywood movie of 2024 remains "Dune: Part Two," which pulled in $711.8 million earlier this year. Or, to put it another way, a little less than half of what "Inside Out 2" has done up to this point.

This is all truly unexpected, to put it mildly. That's not to say Disney and Pixar having a big hit movie is surprising in the broader context of cinema history, but in the pandemic era, the box office has been unkind to the house that "Toy Story" built. After "Soul," "Luca," and "Turning Red" all went directly to Disney+, the Pixar brand seemed damaged for audiences. To that end, 2022's "Lightyear" bombed badly, despite having a big franchise hook. Things started to look truly doomed when last year's "Elemental" opened to just $29 million against "The Flash." However, "Elemental" had a major turnaround, becoming one of the biggest surprises of 2023.

"Elemental" finished its run with $496.4 million worldwide, which in turn helped build up Pixar's name as a must-see theatrical brand again. Even so, nobody expected the sequel to 2015's "Inside Out" to become the first movie since "Avengers: Endgame" to clear $100 million on its second weekend in theaters. It's been a run for the ages to be certain and one worth celebrating, particularly given how bleak things looked in the first half of 2024 after films like "The Fall Guy" and "Furiosa" failed in such spectacularly depressing fashion.

The question that remains: just how high can Riley and her emotions fly? At this point, it's all but assured that the sequel will at least climb past "Frozen II" ($1.453 billion) to become the biggest animated movie ever, unless you count 2019's "The Lion King" remake ($1.66 billion). It's also likely to pass "Top Gun: Maverick" ($1.495 billion) to become the third-biggest movie of the pandemic era behind just "Spider-Man: No Way Home" ($1.9 billion) and "Avatar: The Way of Water" ($2.32 billion). If it can pass "The Avengers" ($1.52 billion), it'll make its way into the top ten. At this point, that seems more likely that not.

"Inside Out 2" is in theaters now.