Paging Joy! Pixar‘s “Inside Out 2” has electrified the box office again, scoring a sensational $100 million in its second weekend of release. Ticket sales declined just 35% from its mighty $154 million debut, resulting in the seventh-biggest sophomore outing in history and best ever for an animated film.
Notably, “Inside Out 2” added more in its second weekend than its predecessor, 2015’s “Inside Out,” earned in its $90 million opening weekend. The only movies with bigger second weekends were billion-dollar behemoths “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” ($149 million), “Avengers: Endgame” ($147 million) and “Infinity War” ($114 million), “Black Panther” ($111 million), “Jurassic World” ($106 million) and “The Avengers” ($103 million). At this rate, “Inside Out 2” is barreling toward the coveted $1 billion club as well.
So far, Disney and Pixar’s family-friendly sequel has grossed $355 million in North America and $724 million globally. After eight days in theaters, “Inside Out 2” surpassed “Dune: Part II” — which generated $282 million domestically and $711 million worldwide — as the biggest movie of the year.
“Excitement created by the monumental opening weekend of ‘Inside Out 2’ sparked a massive outpouring of interest and carried over into another phenomenal weekend for the film and the industry,” says senior Comscore analyst Paul Dergarabedian.
It’s another huge weekend for cinema operators in this otherwise dismal summer season. With the sizzling performance of “Inside Out 2,” the year-to-date deficit shrank again from 23.8% to 21%, according to Comscore. Now, movie theaters need the rest of the summer slate — including “A Quiet Place: Day One” (June 28), “Despicable Me 4” (July 3) and “Deadpool & Wolverine” (July 26) — to continue the momentum.
“Inside Out 2” remained in first place as several new movies entered the theatrical fray.
“The Bikeriders,” directed by Jeff Nichols and starring Austin Butler, Jodie Comer and Tom Hardy, fared the best of new releases. It opened in third place with $10 million from 2,642 venues. It’s a decent start for an arthouse drama about a midwestern motorcycle club, except “The Bikeriders” carries a relatively sizable $35 million production budget.
Disney was originally scheduled to release “The Bikeriders” theatrically in 2023, but those plans were put on hold because of the actors strike. After parting ways with Disney, the movie’s backer New Regency brought the film to Focus Features. Critics seem to like “The Bikeriders” more than audiences; it landed an 82% on Rotten Tomatoes and “B” grade on CinemaScore.
“This opening is good-not-great,” says David A. Gross, who runs the movie consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research, adding that “overseas prospects are lukewarm.”
Another newcomer, Russell Crowe’s disturbing thriller “The Exorcism,” debuted in seventh place with a dismal $2.43 million from 2,240 theaters. Backed by Vertical and produced by Miramax, the story follows Crowe as an actor who begins to unravel while shooting a horror film, leading his estranged daughter to wonder if there’s something more sinister at play. Critics and audiences rejected “The Exorcism,” which holds a 31% on Rotten Tomatoes and “D” CinemaScore.
“Crowe has a good track record, but the picture isn’t working and the marketing spend should be saved,” says Gross.
“The Exorcism” landed ahead of June Squibb’s action-adventure “Thelma,” which collected $2.2 million from 1,290 theaters. Magnolia is releasing the well-reviewed film, which stars the nonagenarian Squibb (who did most of her own stunts) as a feisty 93-year-old grandmother who gets conned by a phone scammer and sets out to reclaim what was taken from her.
Elsewhere, holdover titles remained at the top of domestic box office charts.
Sony’s “Bad Boys: Ride or Die” stayed in second place with an impressive $19 million from 3,781 locations in its third weekend of release. The fourth installment in the buddy-cop comedy series, starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, has grossed $147 million in North America and $289.1 million globally
Disney and 20th Century’s “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” swung to No. 4 with $3.6 million from 2,410 venues in its seventh weekend in theaters. The fourth chapter in the “Apes” reboot franchise has earned $164 million domestically.
Sony’s animated “The Garfield Movie” rounded out the top five with $3.6 million from 3,013 theaters. After five weekends on the big screen, the cartooned adventure has generated $85 million in North America and $230 million worldwide. The film only cost $60 million to produce, so it’s a solid winner for Sony and Alcon Entertainment.
In limited release, Yorgos Lanthimos’ surrealist comedy “Kinds of Kindness” grossed $350,000 from five locations (averaging $70,000 per screen). According to Searchlight, it’s the year’s best limited opening and highest per-screen average to date. Frequent collaborators of the Greek filmmaker, such as Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Willem Dafoe, Margaret Qualley and Joe Alwyn, star in “Kinds of Kindness,” which is described as a “triptych fable” and consists of three loosely connected stories about oddball characters. Searchlight will add 500 screens next weekend before opening “Kinds of Kindness” nationwide on July 3.
Meanwhile, A24’s coming-of-age story “Janet Planet” collected $49,684 from two screens (averaging $24,824 per location). Playwright Annie Baker directed the film in her feature debut, starring Julianne Nicholson and Zoe Ziegler as mother and daughter in Massachusetts during the summer of 1991. It’ll continue to expand its theatrical footprint on June 28.
From Variety US