Inside Out 2 Breaks $1 Billion at the Global Box Office to Become the First 2024 Film

Just 19 days after its debut, “Inside Out 2” surpassed the $1 billion mark at the box office this weekend, making it the fastest-ever animated movie to do so worldwide.

“We’re absolutely thrilled to have reached this phenomenal milestone in record time, and it once again proves that global audiences will come out for a great movie,” Disney executive vice president of theatrical distribution Tony Chambers explained in a press release on Sunday. “The film’s remarkable success is a testament not only to the incredible creativity of the Pixar team but an example of moviegoing at its very best.”

“Inside Out 2’s” tremendous success has shocked the 2024 box office, which had been stagnant. Comscore data shows that until the movie’s June 16 release, domestic sales were more than 25% behind 2023’s performance.

“Over the past few weeks, we’ve seen the year-to-date, year-over-year domestic box office revenue deficit shrink from 27% to 19% and that’s due in large part to the amazing and much welcome performance of ‘Inside Out 2,’ a film that has adjusted the mood of the movie industry in just a few short weeks,” explained Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore.

Since “Barbie” came out in July of last year, this movie has become the top grossing picture of the year and the first to break the $1 billion mark. It also becomes one of the eight Disney and Pixar films that have made over $1 billion in revenue, joining “The Incredibles 2,” “Finding Dory,” the two “Frozen” films, and the last two “Toy Story” chapters.

Box Office Pro’s editorial director, Daniel Loria, projects that this year’s total domestic box office receipts will be between $8.1 billion and $8.4 billion, down from 2023’s total of over $9 billion, the highest since the pandemic. Box Office Pro gathers sales and showtime data from thousands of movie theatres across the United States.

Loria points out that more progress can yet be made in closing the gap.

“The impact of the strike on the box office is clear in the first five months of the year,” he explained.“If the movies are there, the audience will follow. I expect to see great numbers in the second half of the year, leading into 2025 and beyond. Another surprise hit or two, and we may get a lot closer to matching that $9 billion than we all expected coming into the year.”