‘Inside Out 2’ Ties ‘The Lion King’ For Fastest Animated Film To Reach $1 Billion Box Office

Inside Out 2 has become the first film of 2024 to reach $1 billion at the global box office. The film achieved the feat in just 19 days, tying the cg remake of The Lion King for fastest animated film to reach the milestone.

Just 12 animated films have ever reached the billion-dollar milestone. Nine of them are Disney or Pixar films, while the other three are Illumination titles. (It should be noted that many news outlets are incorrectly reporting that IO2 broke the record for fastest animated film to one billion because they wrongly identify The Lion King as live action. Even resources like Deadline that have previously labeled The Lion King as an animated film are now inexplicably misreporting the film’s production technique.)

In the U.S., the Kelsey Mann-directed fended off A Quiet Place: Day One to remain #1 at the box office for a third weekend in a row, with an estimated $57.4 million. The film has grossed $469.3m domestic, putting it at #6 all-time for animated films. Ahead of it are Incredibles 2 ($608.5m), The Super Mario Bros. Movie ($574.2m), The Lion King from 2019 ($543.6m), Finding Dory ($486.2m), and Frozen II ($477.3m).

Globally, IO2 picked up $108m over the weekend, lifting its international total to $545.5m. The global total now stands at $1.014 billion.

What can’t be overlooked in the film’s performance is the impact of Latino and Hispanic audiences on the box office, both domestically and abroad. In the U.S., Latinos make up the largest portion of the audience. From The Hollywood Reporter:

Historically, white moviegoers made up 40 to 50 percent of a Pixar movie’s audience domestically. In the case of Inside Out 2, there was a notable shift. Latinos made up 38 percent, followed by Caucasians (34 percent), Black moviegoers (13 percent), Asian moviegoers (10 percent) and Native American/other (5 percent), according to one of PostTrak’s real-time surveys over the weekend. Sources say Inside Out 2 never would have done the kinds of numbers it did without that level of diversity.

The THR article linked above has further details on Disney’s efforts to lure Latinos with this film. Internationally, too, IO2 has overperformed with the demographic to become the highest-grossing animated film ever across Latin America (and #3 all-time when including live-action films). Two of the film’s top five international markets are in the region: the #1 international market Mexico ($81.9m) and the #4 market Brazil ($39m).

Including live-action releases, IO2 has reached top 10 all-time status in many countries of the region. Per Deadline’s research, the film’s all-time rank is as follows: Chile (#1), Uruguay (#2), Mexico (#3), Colombia (#4), Central America (#4), Ecuador (#5), and Paraguay (#4).

Is IO2 an outlier or are Latino audiences in the U.S. and Latin America starting to lift the global box office for animation? While it may be too early to tell, if the trend holds, expect it to have an impact on the animated films that Hollywood produces in the future.