Inside Out 2 has enjoyed a record-shattering $295 million opening weekend at the box office – but exactly how did the Pixar sequel become so ludicrously successful? With the disappointing commercial performance of Lightyear and Elemental, Pixar has stumbled in the past couple of years. The studio used to be known as a hit factory, delivering one of the greatest animated movies ever made every single year. But in recent years, the studio’s reputation has faltered as its output has become more hit-and-miss. Pixar desperately needed a win, and Inside Out 2 has provided that win and then some.

In its first weekend in theaters, Inside Out 2 broke plenty of box office records. It’s the best opening of 2024 so far, the second-highest opening for a Pixar movie, the second-highest opening for an animated movie, the highest animated movie opening in the international market – the list goes on. It was unlikely that the sequel to Inside Out would bomb at the box office, but it also seemed like a long shot that it would perform so overwhelmingly well. So, here’s a breakdown of how Inside Out 2 became so successful at such a tough time for movie theaters.

10

Inside Out 2 Has Mass Audience Appeal

A lot of recent tentpoles have struggled at the box office because they’ve had limited audience appeal. The Fall Guy only appealed to devotees of the action genre. Despite its female hero, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga similarly skewed a male action movie audience (and the even more niche demographic of nostalgic Mad Max fans). Even a successful movie like Dune: Part Two has targeted an older audience and alienated younger viewers. Inside Out 2 is one of the only genuine four-quadrant movies of the year.

As a colorful animated adventure, Inside Out 2 has very strong family appeal. But it’s also a rare movie that goes beyond that, because of when the first one released. In the near-decade since the original movie, some fans of the original will have started their own families. Others will be older and go to the theater independently.

9

Inside Out 2 Is A Sequel To One Of Pixar’s Best Movies

Given the current price of cinema tickets, going out to see any movie is a gamble. Whereas an original movie like Turning Red or Elemental is a risk for audiences, sequels have the safety of familiar worlds and beloved characters. Since audiences already know they love characters like Joy, Sadness, and Anger, and they already know they love the creative psychological worldbuilding of Inside Out, Inside Out 2 is a safer bet than most.

Pixar has had its fair share of struggles in the past few years, but Inside Out is the kind of movie that people associate with great Pixar. So, there was a lot of hype and anticipation for the follow-up. Just like Finding Dory and Monsters University before it, Inside Out 2 was guaranteed some level of success, because it comes with a built-in fan base.

8

Inside Out 2 Had Great Reviews & Early Word-Of-Mouth

While the built-in fan base and audience familiarity certainly helped Inside Out 2’s box office performance, it also didn’t hurt that the movie has received universal praise from fans and critics alike. It has a 91% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes, from over 200 reviews, and a 96% audience score, with over 1,000 verified ratings. It also earned an A grade from CinemaScore. Suffice to say, the response has been mostly positive.

It’s not unheard of for a poorly received movie to do well at the box office, from Suicide Squad to a handful of Transformers sequels, but positive reviews certainly come in handy. Anyone who’s on the fence about watching Inside Out 2 will probably be convinced to check it out when they see the widespread acclaim. And anyone who has seen it will likely recommend it to their friends, because it’s a fantastic movie.

7

The Inside Out Franchise Has Matured With Its Fans

The Inside Out franchise has matured with its fan base. The original Inside Out dealt with the biggest developments in early childhood, while the sequel deals with the complications of adolescence. That exploration of adolescence has arrived at the perfect time. The first Inside Out movie came out nine years ago, which is long enough for kids who watched it in theaters to grow into their teenage years.

Young kids were blown away by the original Inside Out’s message about the positive role of sadness. Now that they’re teenagers, they can be blown away by the sequel’s message about learning to control anxiety. Teenagers are a great demographic for movies, because they have more independence than younger kids and they have more free time than adults. A big chunk of Inside Out 2’s business will be thanks to this demographic.

6

Struggling With Anxiety Is Universally Relatable

The central premise of Inside Out 2 sees Anxiety popping up in a teenage Riley’s mind and seizing control from Joy. Throughout the film, Anxiety comes up with countless what-if scenarios to keep Riley in a state of worry. Anxiety thinks she’s doing the right thing and helping Riley, but doesn’t realize how destructive her influence is. In the film’s climactic sequence, Riley suffers from a panic attack and the other emotions have to figure out how to control Anxiety.

In a world rocked by a pandemic and defined by social media doomscrolling, anxiety has become a major struggle for a lot of people around the globe. Inside Out 2 completely understands that struggle and visualizes it in a profoundly relatable way. Part of the sequel’s success can be attributed to this poignant commentary on a universal struggle.

5

Inside Out 2 Had Great Marketing

The reason for a lot of Disney’s box office bombs in the past couple of years, from Strange World to Wish, has been that the studio’s marketing team expected the Disney brand alone to do all the heavy lifting for them. This year, they’ve stepped up their game, with eye-catching marketing campaigns for Moana 2, Deadpool & Wolverine, and Mufasa: The Lion King. Inside Out 2 got a big boost from an impressive marketing campaign.

The trailers for Inside Out 2 promised some major plot developments, like the introduction of Anxiety and the literal bottling-up of the original emotions, without spoiling the whole movie. These trailers gave a clear idea of the movie that audiences were in for, but left out enough to intrigue potential viewers. A strong marketing campaign can go a long way.

4

Animated Movies Have Long Been Successful Despite Other Box Office Struggles

While superhero movies have begun to falter at the box office, animation still reigns supreme. The fact that animated movies are ideal for family viewing means that the potential ticket sales get multiplied by parents bringing their kids. Three of the biggest movies of 2023 were animated: The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which gave Barbie a run for its money (literally); Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, which flew in the face of so-called superhero fatigue; and Pixar’s own Elemental, which initially struggled, but later legged it out to a respectable box office gross.

The same goes for this year. Kung Fu Panda 4 was a hit, The Garfield Movie had a respectable gross (relative to its slim budget), and even IF, which is a hybrid of live-action and animation, has done better than most. Inside Out 2 has capitalized on the animation market.

3

Inside Out 2 Promised More Than Just A Repeat Of The Original

The problem with a lot of sequels is that there’s no artistic reason for them to exist. Most sequels get made simply because the first movie made money. The studio doesn’t want to jeopardize the sequel’s profitability, so they avoid taking creative risks and veer closely to the original. But that’s never been Pixar’s approach. Even when Pixar makes a sequel purely because Disney wants to make more money out of an I.P., like Toy Story 4, the studio comes up with a solid reason for that movie to exist.

The trailers for Inside Out 2 made it clear that this wouldn’t just be a rehash of the original. They introduced four new emotions – Anxiety, Envy, Ennui, and Embarrassment – that came along with Riley’s progression into adolescence. Inside Out 2 made a convincing case for its own existence.

2

Inside Out 2 Didn’t Have Much Box Office Competition

Stiff competition can bury any movie at the box office. Last year, the Haunted Mansion reboot was destroyed at the box office because Disney decided to release it a week after Barbenheimer. Luckily for Inside Out 2, it didn’t face a lot of competition at the box office in this past weekend. IF and The Garfield Movie are both still ticking over, but the latter was released three weeks ago, so most of the people planning to watch it have seen it already. This is the first big family movie since then (and it’s a bigger and better-received one at that).

Inside Out 2’s release date wasn’t chosen for its lack of competition; June just happens to be Pixar’s traditional release window. The studio has released its movies as close to June as possible for almost two decades. But the lack of competition certainly helped it get to $295 million.

1

Inside Out 2 Is A Much-Needed Feel-Good Movie

With the economy getting tighter, the planet getting warmer, and a couple of divisive elections coming up, the world needs a feel-good movie like Inside Out 2 right now. From the politically fraught thrills of Civil War to the ominous cautionary tale of Dune: Part Two, there haven’t been a ton of movies this year that gave audiences the warm and fuzzy feeling that Inside Out 2 provides. Inside Out 2 is exactly the kind of heartwarming movie that Pixar specializes in.

Throughout its runtime, Inside Out 2 deals with less-than-feel-good subjects like struggling with self-worth and suffering from panic attacks. But, as is customary for Pixar, Inside Out 2’s story builds to a feel-good ending. The reason for Inside Out 2’s massive success might be as simple as it being the movie people need to see right now.