Disney is back on top at the box office.
On Tuesday, “Inside Out 2” surpassed $1.46 billion in global ticket sales, making it the highest-grossing animated feature of all time, usurping another Disney title, “Frozen II.” Its box office will continue to grow. The film has yet to open in Japan, a region that contributed nearly $33 million to the $850.5 million global total of “Inside Out” in 2015.
The record-breaking box office for “Inside Out 2” comes after a series of theatrical hits and misses from the company, especially from its animated releases.
In particular, Pixar has suffered at the box office in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. Much of its difficulties have come, in part, because Disney opted to debut a handful of animated features directly on streaming service Disney+ during theatrical closures and even once cinemas had reopened.
As a result, before “Inside Out 2,” no Disney animated feature from Pixar or its Walt Disney Animation studio had generated more than $480 million at the global box office since 2019.
Of note, Disney does not consider its 2019 “The Lion King” to be an animated feature despite nearly the entire film being computer animated. It is considered a live-action remake, according to the company. Otherwise, it would be the highest-grossing animated feature, as it collected more than $1.6 billion during its theatrical run. Box office analysts adhere to Disney’s categorization of the film.