Inside Out 2 Continues Joyful Box Office Run With An Anxiety-Free Second Weekend Hold

Before June 2024 started, most box office analysts believed that the 2024 theatrical marketplace would have to wait until late July’s Deadpool and Wolverine for $100+ million opening weekend. Inside Out 2 overperforming last weekend to a $154 million debut was already an early gift for theater owners. However, this new Pixar release kept on astonishing this weekend with a $100 million second weekend. That's the biggest second weekend haul in history for an animated movie. It's also only the seventh movie in history to crack $100+ million on its second weekend of domestic release. It's also the first title in history to score over $100 million on its second domestic weekend without also securing a $200+ million domestic bow.

Needless to say, Inside Out 2 left the second weekends of any other Pixar sequels in the dust. Dipping only 36% from opening weekend, Inside Out 2 drastically outpaced the 56% and 46% second weekend drops of Incredibles 2 and Finding Dory, respectively. Its 36% second weekend dip is roughly in the same territory as the 35% drop for Up back in May 2009. Don't forget, that film opened to $86 million less than Inside Out 2! Additionally, Inside Out 2’s minimal drop makes it a rarity among $100+ million North American openers. Previously, only 16 $100+ million domestic openers had second weekend declines under 50%. Inside Out 2 also follows Top Gun: Maverick, Shrek 2, Frozen 2, Spider-Man, and Star Wars: The Force Awakens as the only $100+ million domestic openers in history to dip under 40% in their respective second weekends.

On top of all that, Inside Out 2 is now running ahead of Barbie at the same time in its domestic run. That Greta Gerwig directorial effort scored $351.4 million by its second Sunday. Inside Out 2, meanwhile, has $355 million as of this writing. How high can this Pixar sequel eventually go? Barbie finished its impressive domestic run with $636 million. Only time will tell if Inside Out 2 can get that high. If it got anywhere near that haul, it would surpass Incredibles 2 for the title of the biggest animated feature ever domestically. What is clear right now, though, is that this title has struck a profound chord with moviegoers everywhere. Familiar brand names will only get you so far at the box office. Holding this well cements Inside Out 2 as a pop culture event beyond its connections to 2015's Inside Out. What a welcome surprise for movie theater owners after a dismal May 2024!

Bad Boys: Ride or Die continued its impressive domestic run with another $18.7 million in its third frame for a $146.9 million domestic total. This one probably has another $40-45 million in the tank depending on how well it holds over 4th of July weekend.

In third place was The Bikeriders, which opened to a perfectly fine $10 million. That three-day haul alone surpasses the domestic total of all prior Jeff Nichols directorial efforts save for the $21.5 million gross of Mud (which Bikeriders should easily surpass unless a historically terrible second-weekend plunge is in the cards). Exempting recent Downton Abbey and My Big Fat Greek Wedding sequels, Bikeriders is the first Focus Features title open to over $10 million since The Northman in April 2022.

Originally, The Bikeriders would’ve premiered on December 1, 2023 through 20th Century Studios. Those plans got scuttled thanks to the big strikes last year. Afterwards, the film both got delayed and a new distributor in the form of Focus Features. In hindsight, that postponement was for the best. In an early December 2023 slot, Bikeriders would’ve been swallowed up by competition from so many other award season dramas. In June 2024, though, The Bikeriders stood out as the one “grown-up movie” against new Bad Boys and Inside Out sequels. It actually filled a void in the marketplace instead of just being yet another R-rated drama looking for awards love.

Right behind The Bikeriders was a trio of May 2024 holdovers. First up was Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. That blockbuster sequel eased another 33% for $3.7 million in its seventh weekend of release for a $164.4 million domestic total. Next up, The Garfield Movie grossed another $3.6 million this weekend (a 23% dip from the last frame) for an $85.1 million domestic total. IF, meanwhile, fell 23% for a $2.77 million sixth weekend gross and a $106.6 million domestic total. Though its five holdover frames, IF has impressively experienced three impressive weekend dip of 35% or less. This leggy title should get to a final domestic total just north of $115 million. Interestingly, that would be in the same range as the North American finals for other original live-action/CGI kid’s movies like G-Force and Hop.

After shooting in late 2019 (before the COVID-19 pandemic truly began!), The Exorcism finally hit movie theaters this weekend. That long wait resulted in only a $2.4 million bow. That's really not great for a new horror movie launching in over 2,000 theaters. However, it is already the second-biggest movie ever distributed by Vertical Entertainment. Can it eventually overthrow the $4.28 million haul of 2018 "masterpiece" Gotti and become the biggest Vertical Entertainment title ever? Probably. Among Russell Crowe movies that opened in wide release, The Exorcism kept a bit ahead of the February 2024 B-movie Land of Bad, at least.

Another wide release newcomer this weekend was Thelma. This acclaimed June Squibb star vehicle premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. Pre-2020, such a title would’ve inevitably started in four theaters and then gradually expanded into hundreds of locations. In the modern cinema landscape, though, the allure of exploiting premium-video-on-demand revenues sooner and the closure of several arthouse theaters has led to indie outfits dropping smaller-scale titles into wide release immediately. So it was with Thelma, which was handled in North America by Magnolia Pictures. This indie studio is famous for housing many modern masterpieces like Kokomo City and Shoplifters. However, Magnolia had never launched a movie into wide release before June 2024. The only pre-Thelma Magnolia title to even play in wide release was RBG!

That made the decision to immediately propel Thelma into 1,290 locations a curious one. This release allowed Thelma to procure a solid $2.2 million over opening weekend. Among 2024 theatrical releases, Thelma narrowly exceeded the debut In a Violent Nature from three weeks ago and notably outpaced the opening weekend of March 2024 indie title One Life. It also left the debuts of late May 2024 indie titles Ezra and Summer Camp in the dust. Furthermore, Thelma is also already the 18th-biggest Magnolia Pictures release in history after just three days of release. Most positively, Thelma opened a little ahead of the $1.9 million domestic launch of Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris from July 2022. That Lesley Manville sleeper hit ended up making just over $10 million in North America. If Thelma can hold on decently in the weeks to come and reach anything above $6 million domestically, it’ll be a tidy little moneymaker. It'll also be a welcome reminder that lower-key titles still have a place theatrically.

Sweidsh rock band Ghost continued the recent hot streak of concert documentaries with its feature Rite Here Rite Now, which grossed $1.4 million at 341 locations. Counting its Thursday night screenings, it's now grossed $2.4 million. Next up, The Fall Guy had one last weekend haul in the seven-digit range by taking in exactly $1 million (a 39% dip from last weekend) for a $90 million total. The feature is now only slightly behind the domestic total of the last David Leitch directorial effort Bullet Train, albeit with a significantly bigger budget.

Yorgos Lanthimos continued his fascinating ascension to name-brand director this weekend with the outstanding limited release debut of Kinds of Kindness. Launching in five theaters, the title grossed $350,000 for the weekend for a $70,000 per theater average. That's far the biggest per theater average of 2024 so far. It's also down only 4% from the opening weekend per theater average of Poor Things! Kindness launches into wide release on Friday. There’s no way it can match the $36.4 million domestic box office haul of the last Lanthimos movie, Poor Things. However, Kindness seems poised to do terrific business when it expands into more theaters.

IFC Films made a fatal mistake in the second weekend of Ghostlight's run. This indie studio immediately took this feature into 502 screens after just one weekend of play in only a handful of theaters. That's a terrible move for a smaller title like this devoid of big names. Ghostlight needed a gradual rollout, not an abrupt shift into 500+ locations. Unsurprisingly, it wiped out and grossed only $247,000 this weekend for a dismal per-theater average below $500. Patience is a virtue with these kinds of limited release titles and Ghostlight deserved that kind of patience.

Neon continued its slow burn theatrical rollout for Robot Dreams by bringing the feature to 90 locations in its fourth weekend of release. Grossing another $126,053 for a per theater average of $1,401, Robot Dreams has now made $439,888 domestically. Considering how well this one holds over the impending 4th of July weekend, Robot Dreams could eventually exceed $1 million domestically. I Saw the TV Glow, meanwhile, continued its march to $5 million domestically by scoring another $90,160 this frame (a 44% drop from last weekend) for a $4.84 million domestic total. Fellow A24 holdover Tuesday plummeted 76% from its wide release expansion last weekend to gross just $71,365 this weekend. Tuesday has now grossed only $637,590 domestically.

The Annie Baker directorial effort Janet Planet began its theatrical run this weekend in just two locations where it grossed a fantastic $49,684 for a $24,842 per theater average. Among 2024 limited release titles, Janet Planet had the fifth-biggest per-theater average of 2024 so far (three of those five movies are now A24 titles). In a very hopeful sign for its future box office prospects, Janet Planet increased 30% on Saturday from its opening day. This indicates great word-of-mouth is working in the title's favor. This one’s eventual box office run will be intriguing to watch. After all, it’s a much quieter, more down-to-earth movie than many modern audiences associate with the A24 logo. However, those qualities are also likely to give it a longer theatrical run, since Janet Planet doesn’t have a big brand name or star that could make it frontloaded. Finally, Green Border premiered domestically to $7,000 from a single theater.

The top 10 this weekend grossed $146 million. That's a 39% increase from this same weekend last year when Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse returned to the top of the box office in its fourth weekend of release. June 2024 has, as of this writing, cracked $730 million. There’s a good chance June 2024, following up on May 2024’s dismal $549.9 million monthly haul, could clear $1 billion in the remaining seven days left in the month. If it did, June 2024 would be only the fourth month to exceed $1 billion domestically (following July 2022 and June & July 2023) since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Even if it falls short of $1 billion, June 2024 will still end up above $950 million. That's a haul putting every other month of 2024 to date to shame.

The box office officially seems to be rebounding and, best of all, non-tentpole titles like The Bikeriders and Thelma are doing decent business domestically. For theater owners, this is a Godsend. Not only is a big blockbuster drumming up figures that would’ve been remarkable before the pandemic, but a variety of titles are holding and opening well. Let’s hope that momentum keeps going for the rest of the summer!