The premiere of Disney and Pixar’s latest feel-good flick Inside Out 2 is finally upon us, arriving nearly a decade after the premiere of the 2015 original. But even though the animated sequel is already garnering stellar reviews, trust me: You can afford to walk, not run to movie theaters to see it.
Get ready to return to Riley’s (Kensington Tallman) emotional HQ, because Inside Out 2 has officially landed in theaters. And yeah, based on early reviews, the followup might be even better than its 2015 predecessor—a pretty remarkable feat, given that Inside Out remains one of Pixar’s best-rated films to date. Much of the original cast reprised their roles for the sequel, including Amy Poehler as Joy, Phyllis Smith as Sadness, and Lewis Black as Anger, in addition to A-listers from the likes of Maya Hawk’s Anxiety to Paul Walter Hauser ‘s Embarrassment, June Squibb’s Nostalgia, and Ayo Edebiri’s Envy.
Directed by Kelsey Mann, Inside Out 2 will follow a slightly older version of Riley as she navigates the pressures of high school, friendship, and her ever-changing feelings as she finds herself neck-deep in the throes of teenagerhood. As predicted, this coming-of-age film isn’t all sunshine and rainbows, and our girl Riley is really going through it here as the “puberty alarm” (yes, literally) gets in the way of her self confidence, interests, and passion for hockey, made even worse by the fact that Anxiety has moved in and commandeered her emotional control board, pushing Joy to the sidelines.
Still, a happy ending is in store for our protagonist—this is a Pixar movie, after all. But will Inside Out 2′s box office performance enjoy the same fate? Well, Jim Morris, president of Pixar Animation, sure seems to think so.
Inside Out 2 will play in theaters for a whopping 100 days
Look, if you keep up-to-date with entertainment news, then you know recent years haven’t exactly been kind to Disney and Pixar Animation. Last year’s Elemental had a shaky start at the summer box office (eventually going on to find success overseas), while Wish, which looked to celebrate Disney’s 100 year anniversary, tanked hard, grossing just $255 million worldwide (losing the studio an estimated $131 million, per Variety). And don’t even get me started on the historic flop of 2022’s Strange World.
But whether you like it or not, reboots and sequels are almost always guaranteed money makers, which is why Morris revealed in a recent interview with Bloomberg that Inside Out 2 will have a lengthy theatrical run of “about 100 days.” For reference, the average movie plays for about 40 days, give or take, though major studio blockbusters can play upwards of several months. And yeah, considering that Inside Out 2 was released on June 14, this means the film could potentially run on the big screen through mid-to-late September—or a whopping 14 weeks. Oh, the joys of late-stage capitalism.
Morris justified this decision by reiterating Inside Out’s commercial success (it grossed well over $800 million back in 2015), telling the outlet, “With a sequel, if you put something out there that doesn’t have the goods, then you will be punished for it. Having had the doldrums we did, it will certainly be a good test with Inside Out 2 for us to see: Does this stuff still work, or does it not?”
While this is a fascinating look into the mindset of big studio execs, Morris also seems to be shading Disney’s direct-to-Disney+ release model, which was largely responsible for burying (really good, actually) Pixar films like 2020’s Soul and 2022’s Turning Red. “I hope that we will not release another feature film on Disney+,” he says. “If we do more stuff for Disney+, it should be a series, and then that makes a clean demarcation between what we do for theaters and what we do for streaming.”
Of course, Inside Out 2′s theatrical run somewhat hinges on its opening weekend success, but it seems like the sequel will be a guaranteed home run for Pixar. With a prime slot at the summer box office (which happens to coincide with Father’s Day) and a built-in fanbase, analysts are predicting (via Deadline) a global debut of $135 million for the coming-of-age film. If this forecast is accurate, Inside Out 2 could even surpass earlier 2024 releases like Dune: Part Two, with its family-friendly rating certainly working in its favor. In any case, it’s difficult to imagine this thing bombing.
All this to say that you can probablyyy take your time moseying into theaters to catch Inside Out 2 on the big screen, as it’ll likely playing for some time. As the time of writing, Disney and Pixar have yet to confirm an at-home release date, but it likely won’t be until fall, meaning eager fans will simply have to be patient. But with the return of Joy, Anger, Sadness, Disgust, and the rest of the crew already earning rave reviews, you might want to scurry to theaters ASAP. Just sayin’.
