‘Inside Out 2’ Heads for Animation Record $96 Million 2nd Weekend at Box Office

There is absolutely no stopping Disney/Pixar’s “Inside Out 2,” which is now well on its way to becoming 2024’s first $1 billion box office hit after earning $31 million on its second Friday, putting it on course for an industry estimated $96 million second weekend, the best ever for an animated film.

That tops the previous record of $92 million set last year by “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” and would give the sequel a two-weekend domestic total of $351 million. That’s the same amount that “Barbie” had to this point in its domestic run last year, and puts it on pace to pass $600 million in North American grosses.

As it stands, “Inside Out 2” has already passed “Dune: Part Two” to become the highest grossing film of the year domestically after just eight days in theaters, and should achieve that same mark worldwide in the next few days after passing the $500 million global mark.

“Inside Out 2” is not only blowing past the high expectations exhibitors had for it with its $155 million opening, it is also proving to have the sort of legs that the biggest post-COVID shutdown box office hits like “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Barbie” have shown. In fact, a $96 million opening would represent a 38% drop from that opening weekend, the best ever second weekend hold for a film with a $150 million-plus opening weekend.

Elsewhere, Sony’s “Bad Boys: Ride or Die” continues to provide plenty of secondary support for the theatrical market with a $19.5 million third weekend. That would give the film a running domestic total of $146 million, just a couple million behind the pace of “Bad Boys For Life” in 2020.

In third is the sole newcomer to the top 5, Focus Features/New Regency’s “The Bikeriders,” which is meeting box office projections with a $9.5 million opening from 2,642 theaters. Premiering at Telluride last year, Jeff Nichols’ crime drama was acquired by Focus after Disney, which was set to release it last December through 20th Century Studios, dropped the film due to the SAG-AFTRA strike.

Starring Jodie Comer, Tom Hardy, and Austin Butler, “The Bikeriders” has received generally positive marks with Rotten Tomatoes scores of 84% critics and 77% audience to go with a B on CinemaScore.

More to come…

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