'Inside Out 2' Finally Surpasses 'Lion King' Remake For Top-Grossing Animated Film
There’s no gesture this time, not that one was expected, and this is the best way I can do it myself
With the recognition differences, there wasn’t going to be a gesture, but still, the moment has finally happened. Inside Out 2, already celebrated as the highest-grossing animated film of all time for overtaking Frozen II, has surpassed the CG-animated 2019 remake of The Lion King that Disney treats as live action to make the argument for who has the top spot irrelevant. The argument has now been summarily kicked down to the #2 spot.
For the overall films of all time, Inside Out 2 is now ranked 9th. It has earned $1.66 billion, over The Lion King’s $1.65 billion global total. The Kelsey Mann-directed Pixar film achieved this with a $9.8 million global gross this weekend, on á $2.7 million domestic and $7.1m international split. The $1.666 billion total has a $651.3 million in domestic and $1.016 billion international gross. It is the twelfth film ever to reach $1 billion solely on international grosses, having hit the milestone through last weekend. While Disney’s categorization of the 2019 remake of The Lion King has the trades saying Inside Out 2 is the first animated film to hit it, the reality of what the former film is makes the latter the second to do so, but it is still impressive. It took five weeks from the surpassing of Frozen 2 for the film to get that $200 million to directly take the spot away from the now-former true king.
For those curious, the film’s best international markets are Mexico ($102.2 million), Brazil ($80 million), the United Kingdom ($72.7 million), France ($62.6 million) and Korea ($60.8 million). Inside Out 2 follows the now-teenaged Riley as she heads to hockey camp and her entire emotional core of Joy, voiced by Amy Poehler, Sadness voiced by Phyllis Smith, Anger, voiced by Lewis Black, Fear voiced by Tony Hale, and Disgust voiced by Liza Lapira, are overtaken by Anxiety (Maya Hawke), Envy (Ayo Edebiri), Embarrassment (Paul Walter Hauser) and must find a way back to control before Riley goes down a bad path. A spinoff series taking place between films, Dream Productions, was unveiled at D23 last month and is set to premiere in Spring 2025.
Sources: Cartoon Brew, Variety