By The Walt Disney Company
It was a very joyful weekend for Inside Out 2.
The Pixar Animation Studios film — which brings audiences back into the mind of Riley as she deals with a host of new emotions as a teenager — made an estimated $154 million at the domestic box office this weekend.
That makes Inside Out 2 not only the biggest box office opening of the year, but the second-biggest animated box office opening of all time domestically behind another Pixar film, 2018’s Incredibles 2.
As for the global total of Inside Out 2, it has made $292 million worldwide so far. That’s the biggest global animated opening of all-time (when using current exchange rates and in like-for-like markets).
The film easily surpassed the box office opening of its predecessor, Inside Out. That film opened to $90 million in the summer of 2015 before going on to make $858 million worldwide.
Inside Out 2 was also a hit with critics. The film is Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes with critics praising the film’s visuals, cast, and clever storytelling. It also received an “A” CinemaScore and a Rotten Tomatoes audience score of 96%.
Director Kelsey Mann said that he really wanted to direct Inside Out 2 because he felt like “there was more story to tell.”
“At the end of the first film, Joy asked the audience a question. She says, ‘after all Riley is 12 now, what could happen?’ Well, I wanted to answer that question,” he said.
Mann is following in the footsteps of Pete Docter — Chief Creative Officer of Pixar — who directed the first film.
Docter added that Inside Out has “continued to be part of the conversation” since it opened nearly a decade ago, which led to the creation of the sequel.
“We hear from people saying, ‘This movie changed the way I think about parenting,’ or ‘The way I understand my own existence’ and like, whoa, that’s pretty heavy for a cartoon — Maybe there’s more to be done with this world?” he said. “So, we tapped Kelsey Mann, who directed Inside Out 2, to think along the lines of the first movie, but in a different direction.”
That direction took the film towards new emotions such as Embarrassment, Ennui, Envy and Anxiety, who was voiced by Maya Hawke.
“This movie is just a force for good. It’s like a double rainbow,” she said. “It takes so many tough emotions that everyone experiences, not just teenagers, and actualizes those emotions in a way that makes them feel less alienating or stressful.”
