'Inside Out 2' Beats Disney's Entire 2023 Slate With Spectacular $140 Million-Plus Opening

Inside Out 2

Now that's more like it. After a rough start to the summer box office, Disney/Pixar's "Inside Out 2" has become a drought buster, earning $62 million from 4,440 theaters as estimates have the sequel earning a spectacular $14o million-plus domestic opening weekend.

Not only is it a big step towards getting the box office back on track, it is a reassertion of Disney's theatrical power after a turbulent 2023. In fact, "Inside Out 2" will earn a higher opening weekend than any of Disney's films last year, standing as the studio's best domestic launch since Marvel Studios' "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" opened to $181.3 million in November 2022.

Even the opening day figure for "Inside Out 2" dwarfs the box office's recent releases, as it grossed more in its first day in North America than any film in the past three months earned in its entire opening weekend. If its opening weekend stretches past $158 million — some industry estimates have it getting there — it will have earned more in three days than any film released since the start of April has earned in its entire run, including Disney's 20th Century release "Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes."

And with excellent critical and audience reception, including a 92% Rotten Tomatoes score and an A on CinemaScore, "Inside Out 2" is a lock to be 2024's first film to gross $300 million-plus domestically, even with major family film competition coming next month from Universal/Illumination's "Despicable Me 4."

Meanwhile, there's more good news coming from Sony/Columbia's "Bad Boys: Ride or Die," which is doing very well as a Father's Day alternative to Pixar's more colorful offering. After opening to $56.5 million, the Will Smith/Martin Lawrence action sequel is headed for a second weekend of $31.5 million, holding its drop to an excellent 44%. That will lift the film's domestic total past $100 million and the lifetime grosses for the "Bad Boys" franchise past $1 billion worldwide.

"Inside Out 2" is now playing in theaters.