“Inside Out 2‘s success is nothing but good news for all of us,” enthused Despicable Me 4 director Chris Renaud.
After just two weeks in theaters, Pixar Animation Studios’ Inside Out 2 has grossed $728.6 million at the global box office, making it the highest-grossing film of 2024 worldwide. Illumination’s Despicable Me 4, the latest entry in the highest-grossing animated film franchise of all time, lands in theaters on Wednesday, July 3, 2024.
Dropping just 35 percent from its record-breaking debut, Inside Out 2 made $101 million domestically in its second weekend, which saw it becoming only the seventh film in history to make $100 million in its sophomore weekend. That box office take also makes it the best second weekend ever for an animated movie.
“After the pandemic, I was concerned about whether families would return to the theater, but with animation, it’s been a better return than it sometimes gets credit for,” the filmmaker added. “Migration, another film from Illumination, did well for an original. Even Kung Fu Panda 4 was in the range of the other Kung Fu Panda movies, maybe not quite as high but not bad, and Garfield has done well.”
After a slow start, Migration grossed $298.6 million worldwide, Kung Fung Panda 4 grossed $545.4 million, and Garfield, currently still in theaters, has grossed $208.1 million to date.
“There was a time when, certainly right after Covid, people weren’t coming out to animated movies in some ways. Even in my own mind, I was like, ‘Oh, man, you know, is it going to come back?’ Yes, of course, not everything is successful, but typically, when something is not working, it’s more about the content than just saying, ‘Oh, nobody’s coming to the theater.’ A great example is The Super Mario Bros. Movie, a massive hit.” Renaud told me.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie broke multiple records, took in $1.362 billion worldwide, and was the second-highest-grossing movie of 2023.
Renaud isn’t taking anything for granted, but the signs are good. “With Despicable Me 4, we struggled against a few things; there were the strikes and the pandemic, but interestingly, ever since the Inside Out 2 trailer dropped and it got so many hits, you could say there was something out there,” he said.
When the first trailer for Disney and Pixar’s Inside Out 2 dropped online in November 2023, it was viewed 157 million times in just 24 hours, the biggest launch of any trailer in the studio’s history. 78 million views were on TikTok, an app that didn’t exist when the first Inside Out arrived in theaters in 2015.
“Without a doubt, people wanted to see that movie, and clearly, it delivered both critically and from an audience reception point of view,” the director, who also directed Despicable Me and Despicable Me 2, continued. “I saw it at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, and I thought it was terrific. People were down with seeing that movie, which translated to great success. That’s nothing but good news for all of us.”
Despicable Me 4, which is only in theaters and not available on streaming, has already opened strong and set new records in Australia, Argentina, New Zealand, and Uruguay. It secured the largest opening for the entire Despicable Me and Minions franchise in that latter market and grossed a combined debut weekend gross of $9.4 million across all four markets.
With animated features playing so well in theaters, something many movies are failing to do right now, Renaud says the lessons can be learned from Inside Out 2 as well as box office slow burners like Migration and Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, which grossed globally $485.3 million over its prolonged run.
“The Last Wish did really well, and Migration had a little bit of that, but it was slow and steady, and I hope the studios watch that. Both movies had the same advantage: they kept in the theater for a while; they didn’t just say, ‘Oh, off to streaming!’ You’ve got to assess each case individually,” he mused. “Okay, if something’s bombing and it’s going down each week, I get that, but if it’s holding steady, give it its fair shake, and with both those films, Puss In Boots and Migration, the studio did that. What happens sometimes is blanket statements get made. It’s like, ‘Oh, it’s all failing.’ That’s not really true. You have to manage expectations. No, every movie out there is not going to make a billion dollars, but I think that’s another part of this conversation. Don’t make things for so much expense; manage what it is. If it’s not a sequel, it’s an original, so your budgets have to be lower. There are ways to think about it that can make more sense and help everybody succeed.”
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