A Massive Movie Summer?
Inside Out 2 is a hit at the box office. What does this mean for the future of movie theaters?

A scene from the movie Inside Out 2, which may turn out to be the summer’s biggest hit.
Are movies back? Experts believe the success of Inside Out 2 is a sign that audiences are returning to movie theaters after years of thin attendance.
Inside Out 2, the sequel to the 2015 Pixar movie about the emotions in an 11-year-old girl’s brain, opened on June 14. That weekend, the movie earned approximately $155 million in ticket sales in the United States and Canada. It was the second-most successful opening weekend for a Pixar movie and the second-biggest opening for an animated movie in history, behind Incredibles 2 (2018). Based on ticket sales, Inside Out 2, which stars Amy Poehler, Maya Hawke, Tony Hale, Ayo Edebiri, and others, is doing well with audiences of all ages and backgrounds.
“This performance came in well above our expectations,” Daniel Loria, editorial director at movie performance tracker Box Office Pro, told CNN. “We imagined it could…maybe match Toy Story 4’s $120 million opening weekend [in 2019], but this result is absolutely extraordinary.”
Experts say it’s great news for Pixar and its parent company, Disney. Of Pixar’s last couple of movies, Elemental had a slow start and Lightyear was not successful. The movie industry as a whole has struggled to recover since movie theaters closed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Film studios hope that the success of Inside Out 2 is a sign of better things to come.
“Everybody needed this because success begets success,” Tony Chambers of Disney told the Associated Press, meaning that one successful movie often leads to more hits. “It’s great for the industry, great for Pixar, and great for the business overall.”
Jeff Whipple, a vice president at Megaplex Theaters, is expecting seats to be filled this summer. He says families are seeing Inside Out 2 together, and kids have been taking photos of posters for Despicable Me 4, which opens on July 3.
“I think word is going to spread on [Inside Out 2] and help draw people into theaters throughout the summer,” Whipple told the Associated Press.