Disney/Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” has kept its incredible start at the box office going into the week, as the film earned an excellent $30 million domestically on Wednesday on Juneteenth.
That result represents the third highest total ever recorded on a Wednesday by a film that was not on its opening day, standing only behind the $38 million of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” and the $32.2 million of “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.”
By the end of this coming weekend, possibly as early as Friday, “Inside Out 2” will blast past the $500 million global mark, becoming the first Disney or Pixar animated film to do so since “Frozen II” in 2019. The film currently stands at $235 million domestic and $438 million worldwide, having earned the highest opening days ever in Italy and Spain on Wednesday, with releases in Brazil and China coming this weekend.
While Disney has enjoyed some modest box office success this year with 20th Century’s “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” “Inside Out 2” marks an emphatic reassertion of the studio’s theatrical power after a 2023 that was marked with several high-budget flops like “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” and “The Marvels.”
While still second in domestic market share last year behind only Universal, it was the first time that Disney’s strategy of heavy investment in tentpole releases failed to yield fruit on the level seen in the latter half of the 2010s.
Now, with “Inside Out 2” well on its way to surpassing the $857 million global total of its 2015 predecessor, Disney is shaping up to take the lion’s share of the summer box office after the season got off to a poor start due to strike-related production delays of films like Marvel Studios’ “Deadpool & Wolverine,” which had its release moved from May to July.
Without that film, the May box office fell to its worst domestic total since 1998. But exhibitor sources tell TheWrap that “Deadpool & Wolverine” is enjoying skyrocketing presales and is not only a lock to become the biggest opening weekend ever for an R-rated film — with the past two “Deadpool” films also in the Top 3 — but is flirting with the possibility of reaching or passing the $180-200 million range where films like “Spider-Man: No Way Home” reside.
