Inside Out 2 Becomes First Animated Film to Earn $1 Billion

Variety reports Inside Out 2 has now “surpassed $1 billion at the international box office,” becoming the first animated film in history to do so.

As of this writing, the sequel is said to have made $1.649 billion globally, “including $1.002 billion overseas and $646.3 million domestically.” Mere weeks ago, Inside Out 2 surpassed Frozen II as the highest-grossing animated film in history, discounting Jon Favreau’s  “photorealistically animated” yet still somehow live-action remake of The Lion King from 2019. Pixar’s latest still needs to make an additional $7 million to officially wrest the title to the satisfaction of all mindsets. 

Outside the U.S., the film has fared best in Mexico, where its earned $102.2 million, followed by Brazil at $80 million, the UK at $72.7 million, France at $62.6 million, and Korea at $60.8 million. As previously reported, this is Disney’s second billion-dollar release this year following Deadpool & Wolverine, which also made history as the highest-grossing “R” rated movie of all time.

So, yeah: 1) Disney is absolutely cleaning up, and 2) people around the world seem highly receptive to the concept of anthropomorphizing concepts like Anxiety, Envy, Embarrassment, and Ennui. It was popular with the ancient Greeks and medieval Europeans, and it remains so today.

That said, readers are highly encouraged to pursue Wikipedia’s list of highest grossing animated films by year, which has sent me down a rabbit hole. In 1985, Nelvana’s The Care Bears Movie outgrossed Disney’s The Black Cauldron, which seems positively unthinkable today. The highest-grossing animated film of 1974 was not Charlotte’s Web or Belladonna of Sadness, but instead a Swedish production called Dunderklumpen! Disney may be doing well now, but the pendulum of time can always swing in other directions. How many more sequels and remakes can the company churn out before the public loses interest and a dark horse like Nelvana get its hands on a burgeoning IP?

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