Inside Out 2 is carrying Australia’s cinema resurgence in 2024
Last year we had Barbenheimer, and this year we have Inside Out 2.
2023 saw cinema make a triumphant comeback on the back of COVID in Australia and globally thanks to Barbie and Oppenheimer and 2024 now has a front runner for the year’s biggest box office blockbuster.
Not only did the sequel to the 2015 Pixar hit post the biggest opening weekend since Barbie last year when it launched in cinemas on 13 June, but it is already on track to be the biggest film of 2024 in Australia just behind Dune: Part Two (which pulled in over $23 million).
Globally, it has already breezed past Dune, posting over $724 million in less than two weeks to mark its place as the biggest film of 2024.
Even taking on fellow animated juggernaut Despicable Me 4’s debut this past weekend – which opened in Australia to an all-time franchise high and helped post the highest grossing weekend since post-Christmas – Inside Out 2 still managed to stay at #1 for a second week, taking in $7.46 million.
The film has now scored the highest second weekend ever for a Walt Disney Animation Studios/Pixar movie, ahead of 2016’s Finding Dory ($7.43 million).
Inside Out 2 grossed $100 million globally for its second week of release; just the seventh film to ever do so. Should the trajectory continue, Inside Out 2 will also be the first film to crack $1 billion at the box office since Barbie.
In a recent episode of Mumbrella’s one-on-one podcast, Universal Pictures ANZ director of marketing, Suzanne Stretton-Brown said the key challenge for the cinema industry now is getting people back to the big screen from the small screen.
“I think the thing that we’ve noticed is that obviously since the pandemic and with all the changes to entertainment consumption habits, is that those films that were traditionally doing more modest box office… we’re finding it harder to get out because you have to create. Consumers now, they want a reason to get off the lounge because they’ve got so much choice.
“And that is the category at the moment where we’re really trying to figure out and find new strategies around.”
Listen to the full episode with Stretton-Brown here.
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Neil Griffiths is the editor of Mumbrella. He joined the company in October 2023.
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topics
Australian box office
cinema
Despicable Me 4
Inside Out 2
pixar
Suzanne Stretton-Brown
The Walt Disney Company Australia and New Zealand
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