Deadline’s Most Valuable Blockbuster tournament ends with Pixar Animation Studios’ Chief Creative Officer Pete Docter ascending the ladder to cut the net as Inside Out 2 is crowned the most profitable movie of 2024 with a net take of $650M.
It was a year when Disney made a major comeback at the box office, becoming the first studio post-pandemic to exceed $5 billion at the global box office. And that, per sources, always is great thing for the overall box office, creating an all-boats-rise type of scenario. Last year, Disney had one film in the profitability top 10, Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 3, and four bombs in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Haunted Mansion, Wish and The Marvels. This year, the studio counted the top three most profitable titles with Inside Out 2, No. 2 with Moana 2 and No. 3 with Marvel Studios’ Deadpool & Wolverine — the prescription for superhero fatigue. It also scored the No. 9 film with Mufasa: The Lion King.
It also was a year when family films dominated six of the top spots in the profit tournament, one more than last year. There was a concern as we came out of Covid that families would be reluctant to return to cinemas. Gosh, that is so not true.
This year’s 10 most profitable movies saw pics based on popular female-targeted novels, not just a genre intended for Lifetime and streaming, with Colleen Hoover’s It Ends With Us a massive success at $207M. On that point, studios responded more to the wants of women with Wicked, which not only is a Harry Potter for the current generation but the rebirth of the Broadway musical with the film minting plenty of green with $230M. As studios yearn to make big swings with fanboys, sometimes you miss, with the Bombs list counting Furiosa, Joker: Folie a Deux, Borderlands and Kraven the Hunter.
INSIDE OUT 2
Disney/Pixar
The Film
Pixar — after its movies Luca, Soul and Seeing Red were jettisoned to Disney+ during Covid and trying to make a go with Toy Story spinoff Lightyear and original Elemental — came raging back with Inside Out 2, a sequel to its 2015 adolescent hormonal movie. “I’d say we’re leaning a little bit more into sequels and franchises,” Bob Iger told analysts in February 2024, “I think given the environment and given what it takes to get people out of their homes to see a film … leaning on franchises that are familiar is actually a smart thing.” He got that right in this logical sequel to the original hit, which grossed close to $860M at the worldwide box office. Director Kelsey Mann began working on the sequel in January 2020 after revisiting childhood birthday party photos; Inside Out 2 officially announced at D23 in 2022, with Amy Poehler hitting the stage with Docter. Mann’s notion for one-upping the first film stemmed from including new emotions Anxiety, Envy, Embarrassment and Ennui that further could upset young teen girl Riley. The Bear‘s Ayo Edebiri joined the voice cast as the mischievous Envy, Maya Hawke played Anxiety, Adèle Exarchopoulos became Ennui, and Paul Walter Hauser transformed into Embarrassment.
The Box Score
The Bottom Line
Families loved the sequel as much as the first with an A CinemaScore, but even more, Inside Out 2 scored the second-best opening for an animated movie at the domestic box office with $154M after Pixar’s Incredibles 2 ($182.6M, 2018). There was a huge walk-up business from Latino and Hispanic moviegoers, who repped 36%, more diverse than any other Pixar movie outside of Coco. The 360 global marketing campaign from Disney, which cost $170M, zeroed in on introducing the new emotions of Anxiety, Envy, Embarrassment and Ennui. The studio also prioritized the theatrical appeal to moviegoers in ads so they wouldn’t wait around at home for this sequel on Disney+. In a first for Disney as far as activations go, the Joy and Sadness walkaround characters stepped out of Disneyland Park and into major circuits AMC, Cinemark, Harkins, Regal and other theaters during the Memorial Day holiday and opening weekend for surprise meet-and-greets with fans. Inside Out 2 became the highest-grossing MPA animated movie of all time with $1.69B. (Among all titles, it’s the second all-time behind China’s Ne Zha 2‘s $1.89B.) With $650M, Inside Out 2 made more profit than 2023’s most profitable movie, Illumination/Nintendo/Universal’s The Super Mario Bros Movie, which yielded $559M after all global production revenues and cost.
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