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Pixar is finally back in fighting form.<\/p>\n
The Disney-owned animation studio\u2019s 28th movie, \u201cInside Out 2,\u201d arrived to roughly $145 million in estimated North American ticket sales from Thursday night to Sunday, ending a cold streak that began in March 2020, when theaters closed because of the coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n
It was the second-biggest opening weekend in Pixar\u2019s 29-year history, trailing only the superhero sequel \u201cIncredibles 2,\u201d which arrived to about $180 million<\/a> in 2018.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re back,\u201d David A. Gross, a film consultant who publishes a newsletter<\/a> on box office numbers, said of Pixar. \u201cThis is a sensational opening.\u201d<\/p>\n Based on prerelease surveys that track audience interest, box office analysts had expected \u201cInside Out 2\u201d to take in about $90 million in the United States and Canada over the weekend. That total would have been strong \u2014 on par with opening-weekend ticket sales for the first \u201cInside Out\u201d in 2015.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cInside Out 2\u201d sold an additional $125 million in partial release overseas, bringing its worldwide opening total to around $270 million, analysts said. The PG-rated movie cost an estimated $200 million to make and at least another $100 million to market.<\/p>\n \u201cInside Out 2,\u201d about a 13-year-old girl and the personified emotions inside her puberty-scrambled mind, received exceptional reviews<\/a>. Ticket buyers gave the movie an A grade in CinemaScore exit polls, the same score the first film in the franchise received.<\/p>\n Pixar began to stumble in March 2020, when \u201cOnward\u201d rolled into theaters just as coronavirus infections were spiking. After that, Disney debuted three Pixar films in a row online \u2014 \u201cSoul,\u201d \u201cTurning Red<\/a>\u201d and \u201cLuca\u201d \u2014 bypassing theaters altogether in favor of the company\u2019s Disney+ streaming service.<\/p>\n All three received strong reviews from critics. Quality was not an issue. But Pixar\u2019s connection to ticket buyers \u2014 its strength as a big-screen brand \u2014 began to fade.<\/p>\n \u201cLightyear,\u201d a spinoff from Pixar\u2019s \u201cToy Story\u201d series, marked the studio\u2019s return to theaters in 2022. It crashed and burned<\/a> at the box office. Moreover, reviews were squishy, at least by Pixar standards. Did the studio now have a quality problem, too?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cElemental,\u201d an original Pixar movie that rolled out in theaters last year, also received less-than-sterling reviews and, at least initially, sputtered at the box office. But \u201cElemental\u201d ultimately recovered<\/a>, collecting a respectable $500 million worldwide.<\/p>\n Pixar has since overhauled its pipeline, delaying another original movie, \u201cElio,\u201d which had been planned for theatrical release this year, and pushing forward sequels, including \u201cToy Story 5.\u201d Last month, Pixar said it would stop making original shows<\/a> for Disney+ as part of its retrenchment, and laid off 175 employees, or about 14 percent of its work force. Disney had pushed Pixar to begin making TV series as part of a broader effort \u2014 since abandoned \u2014 to flood Disney+ with content.<\/p>\n Disney notably used its streaming service as a sales tool for \u201cInside Out 2,\u201d which was released exclusively in theaters. On Wednesday, Disney+ subscribers received an email alert for a promotion with Fandango, the online movie ticket seller: Get a $10 credit to use toward a ticket for \u201cInside Out 2.\u201d The offer, which expires in July, subsequently received a splash of attention on Disney-oriented fan sites.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n