Going to the movies right now is the perfect way to escape the summer heat wave, and there’s no film at the moment that audiences want to see more, and escape to, than “Inside Out 2.”
As predicted on Thursday, “Inside Out 2” just had a $100M second weekend. It’s the best second weekend ever for an animated film. It’s also officially overtaken "Dune: Part Two" as the biggest movie of the year, so far.
In many ways, this weekend was even more impressive than the strong debut. The film only fell 35% compared to last weekend. Ticket sales are outpacing any release since 2021’s "Spider-Man: No Way Home”. In other words, “Inside Out 2” has become a mass event in the same way last summer’s “Barbie” was — it’s a water cooler moment for the masses.
All ages are going to see this film. As IndieWire’s Tom Brueggemann says, “The experience of sharing a fun movie seems to have become infectious and quickly spread.” The domestic numbers are staggering — “Inside Out 2” currently sits at $355M. Worldwide, the film is already at $724 million.
This thing is a monster. Just to put things into perspective, this is the first time ever a film that opened below $200M had a second weekend above $100M. It helps a lot that audiences seem to love the film, with high user ratings on CinemaScore, IMDb, PostTrak and Rotten Tomatoes.
Next weekend, its best competition will be “A Quiet Place: Day One,” which is currently tracking at around $50M. I’m going to go out on a limb here and predict a $75M third weekend for “Inside Out 2.” I just have a feeling that word of mouth will further spread, not to mention repeat moviegoers, and we’re going to see this film break more records.
So, after a limp start to the summer movie season, it looks like an animated film has come out of the woodworks to save the day. Moviegoing seems to be rejuvenating again, and there’s the cautious sense that the doom and gloom attitude that many had just a month ago has evaporated. There is, yet again, some creeping hope for the future of theatrical.
Paul Greengrass’ "The Uprising," starring Andrew Garfield, opened to $3.2M from 2,068 theaters this weekend. Yikes. The budget hasn’t been disclosed, but is said to be in the $20-$30M range.