Pixar is finally back in fighting mode.
“Inside Out 2,” the Disney-owned animation studio's 28th film, earned an estimated $145 million in North American box office take from Thursday night through Sunday, ending a slump in box office results that began in March 2020 when cinemas were closed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
This was the second-biggest opening weekend in Pixar's 29-year history, behind only 2018's superhero sequel “Incredibles 2,” which grossed nearly $180 million.
“They're back,” David A. Gross, a film consultant who publishes a newsletter on box-office figures, said of Pixar. “This is a sensational opening.”
Based on pre-release surveys gauging audience interest, box office analysts had projected “Inside Out 2” would gross about $90 million in the U.S. and Canada over the weekend, a total that would have been a strong showing and equal to the ticket sales of the original “Inside Out” during its opening weekend in 2015.
“Inside Out 2” earned an additional $125 million from partial international release, bringing its worldwide debut total to about $270 million, according to analysts. The PG-rated film cost an estimated $200 million to make, with marketing costing at least another $100 million.
“Inside Out 2,” a look at a 13-year-old girl and the anthropomorphized emotions inside her confused adolescent mind, received exceptional reviews: Ticket buyers gave the film an A in CinemaScore exit polls, the same rating as the first film in the series.
Pixar began to stumble in March 2020, when Onward hit theaters just as COVID-19 cases were beginning to surge. Disney then eschewed theater release for three Pixar films — Soul, Turning Red and Luca — and released them consecutively on its streaming service, Disney+.
All three films were well received by critics — quality wasn't an issue — but Pixar's connection with ticket buyers, its strength as a big-screen brand, began to fade.
Pixar's Toy Story spinoff, Lightyear, marked the studio's return to theaters in 2022. It was a massive commercial flop, and it also received poor critical reviews, at least by Pixar standards. Does the studio have quality issues, too?
“Elemental,” a Pixar original film, also received poor reviews and, at least initially, a lackluster box office performance when it was released in theaters last year, but “Elemental” eventually recovered and made a respectable $500 million worldwide.
Pixar has since overhauled its pipeline, delaying another original film, “Elio,” that was scheduled for theatrical release this year, and bringing forward sequels such as “Toy Story 5.” Last month, Pixar said it would stop making original programming for Disney+ as part of job cuts, laying off 175 people, or about 14% of its workforce. Disney had been pressuring Pixar to start making TV series as part of a broader, now-halted, effort to flood Disney+ with content.
Disney famously used its streaming service as a sales tool for “Inside Out 2,” which was released only in theaters. On Wednesday, Disney+ subscribers received an email notification about a promotion from online movie ticket seller Fandango: “Get a $10 credit toward tickets to 'Inside Out 2.'” The offer, which expires in July, has since garnered a lot of attention on Disney-related fan sites.