Since last summer's "Barbie", there has been no movie in the North American film market with an opening box office of more than $100 million for nearly a year. Who will be the first work to achieve this goal in 2024? The industry is paying attention. Finally, this past weekend, Pixar Animation Studios' "Inside Out 2" lived up to expectations and won an astonishing opening box office of $155 million in 4,440 theaters, far exceeding all expectations.

"Inside Out 2" and "Bad Boys 4" both performed well at the box office

This achievement of "Inside Out 2" surpassed the opening box office of "Super Mario Bros. Movie" of $146 million last year. It is not only the highest-grossing animated film since the epidemic; it has also become the second-highest opening box office of the animated film in North American film history after "Incredibles 2" (opening box office of $182 million); at the same time, it has also surpassed "Dune 2" (82.5 million U.S. dollars) and "Godzilla vs. Kong 2" (80 million U.S. dollars) to become the highest-grossing film so far in 2024. In fact, on the first day of its official release in North America last Friday, "Inside Out 2" had a box office of $62 million (including the $13 million box office of the Thursday night preview according to industry practice), which has set a record in 2024.

Stills from Inside Out 2

The first Inside Out, released in 2015, earned $90.5 million at the opening box office, and eventually ended with $356 million in North America and $858 million worldwide. In addition to its box office success, Inside Out also won many honors, including the Oscars, the British Academy Film Awards, and the Annie Awards, and is a work that has been praised by audiences, the media, and industry insiders. At present, although the reputation of Inside Out 2 is slightly inferior to that of the previous film, its total box office is very likely to surpass it. This is undoubtedly a shot in the arm for Pixar Studios and the Disney Group.

In the past, Pixar has long been a golden signboard for Hollywood family movies with the release of works such as "Toy Story", "Finding Nemo", "The Incredibles", "Up" and "Wall-E". However, in the past few years, Pixar has lost its glory, and its reputation and box office performance have both declined seriously.

Not only were three consecutive works placed directly on the streaming platform by the parent company Disney during the epidemic, and they were completely unable to enter the theaters; but last year's summer movie "Elemental City" also only received a box office of 29.6 million US dollars; going back further, 2022's "Lightyear Legend" only opened with 50.5 million US dollars. Although "Elemental City" relied on the slow-heating effect and the global box office reached 495 million US dollars, this figure is still far lower than Pixar's past achievements. As for "Lightyear Legend", it only earned 226 million US dollars at the box office, which was a loss-making business compared to its 200 million US dollars production budget. As a result, many media asked whether Pixar has completely passed the test and whether the audience has become accustomed to watching their new works on streaming platforms? As a result, the opening performance of "Inside Out 2" is enough to respond to various doubts.

Stills from Bad Boys for Life

This weekend, the second place in the box office charts was the previous weekend's champion, Bad Boys for Life (Bad Boys 4). The film grossed $33 million over the weekend, down 42% year-on-year, which was better than expected and better than similar works. Ten days after its release, the film's North American total box office has reached $112 million, making it another relatively successful film at the box office this summer after Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Currently, the industry expects its North American total box office to reach around $200 million, which is enough for Sony Pictures to recover all costs just by relying on domestic box office, not to mention the large overseas market. This weekend (June 22), the film will be released in mainland China theaters.

According to statistics, 70% of the first audience of "Bad Boys 4" were African-American and Hispanic, and less than 20% were white North American audiences. Although Hollywood has increasingly emphasized so-called diversity over the past period of time, the number of blockbusters that truly target black and Hispanic audiences is still very small. In fact, as long as the quality of the work itself is good, films such as "Black Panther" and "Get Out" that target black audiences often get good box office returns.

In this regard, the total North American box office for this Father's Day weekend was approximately US$214 million, the first time it has exceeded US$200 million since July last year; compared to the same weekend in 2023, the result of US$214 million was also 28% higher. This is the first time this year that the box office has increased instead of decreased compared to last year.

Sony Pictures acquires independent cinema chain

There was also some big news in the cinema sector last week. Alamo Drafthouse, an independent cinema chain that had just announced the closure of six of its theaters, was suddenly acquired by Sony Pictures for $200 million without any prior rumors, which really surprised the outside world.

At present, it seems that the 35 branches (20 directly-operated stores and 15 franchise stores) operated by Alamo Studios in 25 cities in 14 states in the United States will continue to be managed by its CEO Michael Kustermann, but he now has an additional boss - Ravi Ahuja, who was promoted to Chief Operating Officer of Sony Pictures in March this year. The latter stated in an official statement from Sony Pictures that the purchase of Alamo Studios shows Sony Pictures' long-term commitment to the cinema model. This is true. After all, Sony is the only one of the "Big Six" in Hollywood that does not have its own streaming platform. If you want to say who is the most supportive of traditional theaters, I'm afraid it is Sony.

Once upon a time, Hollywood film companies each had their own exclusive cinema chains. It was not until 1948 that the U.S. Supreme Court passed the so-called "Paramount Act", which explicitly prohibited film companies from owning large cinema chains on the grounds of suspected monopoly. However, in 1985, the U.S. Department of Justice abandoned the ban and officially lifted it in 2020. However, times have changed, and even without the ban, most Hollywood companies have lost interest in operating theaters themselves for various reasons. In the past few years, only streaming companies such as Netflix and Amazon have occasionally bought the operating rights of some art theaters, with the sole purpose of providing a physical screening venue for their streaming works to comply with the relevant regulations for the Oscars selection and awards.

Alamo Cinemas was founded in 1997 as a single-hall cinema in Austin, Texas, USA. With careful management and differentiated models, it has now become a unique brand in the American film market, specializing in independent screenings of art films and cult films. As the seventh largest cinema chain in North America, they screen more films each year than any other cinema chain, with more than 10 million customers each year.