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In less than two weeks, Disney+ subscribers will be able to stream 2024’s highest-grossing movie (so far): Pixar’s Inside Out 2.
The streamer announced on Thursday (September 12) via social media that the animated sequel to 2015’s family comedy Inside Out will be available to stream on its platform from Wednesday, September 25.
Originally released in theaters in June, Inside Out 2 is set inside a child’s head and centers on new animated emotions – Anxiety, Envy, Ennui and Embarrassment – which go up against the feelings of Joy, Fear and Anger introduced in the first film.
Maya Hawke, French movie star Adèle Exarchopoulos, Ayo Edebiri, and Paul Walter Hauser feature as the voices behind Riley’s new range of emotions, while Amy Poehler, Tony Hale and Lewis Black voice her pre-existing emotions.
Following its summer release, Inside Out 2 became the first movie of 2024 to rake in $1bn at the global box office. It ended up making more than $1.5bn in total.
It also held the top spot at the box office for three consecutive weekends, with its opening weekend hitting a record high of $155m at the US box office amid a grim year for the movie industry.
Last year’s dual Hollywood writers’ and actors’ strikes and the subsequent changes to shift release schedules have added to this year’s dire figures.
The 2023 strikes by the Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild halted film projects for months and led to holes in schedules after movies were pushed back.
In her four-star review for The Independent, Clarisse Loughrey declared that the “cynicism-free sequel might just save Pixar.”
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“Sure, there’s nothing in the film that matches the pure heartbreak of the first, when Riley’s imaginary friend Bing Bong (Richard Kind) disappears into nothingness,” she wrote. “But Inside Out 2 proves that it’s ludicrous, at this point, to accuse the studio of having run out of ideas.”
Days before the movie’s release, Pixar announced it was letting go 14 percent of its staff. The devastating layoffs came as a response to its parent company Disney’s decision to shift its cost-cutting strategies and focus on quality over quantity.
For the past couple of years, Disney was pouring much of its resources into its streaming service content, leaving its creative teams stretched thin, The New York Times reported in May.
“During Covid, we trained audiences to watch our movies on Disney+. I won’t say there was a lot of choice,” Pixar President Pixar Morris told Variety in 2023. “For periods of time, it was the only thing we could do. We have a little work to unring the bell and motivate families to go to the theater and not wait a few months to see it on Disney+.”
Directed by Kelsey Mann, Inside Out 2 almost doubled the lifetime gross of Pete Docter’s Inside Out, which made $90m on its opening weekend and $859m worldwide.
