If the Barbenheimer phenomenon has shown us anything — outside of how suddenly interested people become in seeing good movies when there’s a meme/FOMO factor involved — it’s that the box office race never truly heats up until summertime.
For instance, it may be true that films like Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire and Kung Fu Panda 4 made some respectable monetary gains in the time that they were in theaters, but there was a pretty solid stretch of time where Dune: Part Two — and by extension, Timothée Chalamet’s hold on the box office — looked entirely unassailable. Indeed, Denis Villeneuve’s high-profile adaptation of Frank Herbert’s legendary sci-fi novel — or parts of it, more specifically — immediately cemented itself as one of the biggest blockbusters of the year, with a $711 million box office haul pairing nicely with those Lord of the Rings comparisons.
But now, it’s going to have to settle for second place, as Disney has quite triumphantly set a new 2024 box office record with the ever-delightful and charmingly intelligent Inside Out 2, which has crossed $724 million in box office earnings at the time of writing. The Mouse House will no doubt maintain this record once Deadpool & Wolverine hits its peak later this summer, spelling further agony for the Arrakis faithful.
The Amy Poehler/Maya Hawke Pixar feature is following quite confidently in the footsteps of its predecessor, with 2015’s Inside Out having scored $858.8 million at the box office against a $175 million budget; an entirely appropriate victory for a studio that dared to ask a question like “what if feelings had feelings.”
Inside Out 2 is now playing in cinemas, much to the continued dismay of Paul Atreides.
