Pete Docter and Pixar entered the record books this weekend with a massive opening for Inside Out. The film connected with audiences in a big way, grossing an estimated $91.1 million, an all-time record for both an original animated and live-action movie.
Let’s put it into perspective: the previous record-holder for a completely original concept (in other words, not a sequel, remake, or adaptation) was James Cameron’s Avatar, which opened with $77M in 2009. In animation, the record holder was Brad Bird’s The Incredibles, which chalked up $70.4M during its first weekend in 2004.
In the weekend box office rankings, Inside Out placed second behind the CGI-heavy Jurassic World, which banked $102M in its second week, but that shouldn’t diminish the film’s accomplishment. As box office analyst Phil Contrino told Variety, in a piece about the absurdity of box office numbers, “Inside Out would have been number one in any other weekend. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter. Being number one is overrated.”
