Female audiences have been showing a great deal of power at the box office in recent years, and Disney seems especially determined to deliver content featuring strong female leads in great stories that speak to female viewers. Disney has released seven female-led animated and live-action films among their 14 releases since the last quarter of 2013. Pixar is Disney-owned, but only has one female-led film on their resume so far -- Brave. That's about to change. Pixar's newest entry (and their first release in two years) Inside Out hits theaters this weekend, with a story focused on the life of a young girl -- Riley -- and what goes on inside her mind via characters representing her different emotions. Inside Out is Pixar's best film since Toy Story 3, one of their best ever in fact, and I think it's destined to be one of their most successful.
Before I get to the regular review, let's take a quick trip down Pixar's financial memory lane. Monsters University grossed $743 million worldwide and enjoyed a Rotten Tomato score of 78%. Brave took $538 million around the world and also had a Rotten Tomato score of 78%. Cars 2 managed $559 million in global box office with a terrible Rotten Tomato score of just 39%. And Toy Story 3 became Pixar's highest-grossing film to date with $1 billion in total receipts and a fantastic Rotten Tomato score of 99% -- tied for third-highest in the studio's history.
All of those films opened domestically on the third or fourth weekend of June in their respective years, four straight years in a row. Inside Out is positioned within the same 10-day June range and enters its opening weekend with critical acclaim on par with Toy Story 3.
In fact, this latest Pixar film shares many qualities with the third Toy Story chapter, including a beautiful, rich, unexpectedly complex emotional arc that reveals itself slowly and will leave adults with jaws dropped and eyes damp. The film has possibly broader appeal than almost any previous Pixar film, with plenty for the youngest kids to enjoy but a story aimed at a slightly older near-teen and early-teen demographic, as well as more than the usual amount of smart storytelling and humor to appeal to the adults in the room. Indeed, this isn't a story simply for the children to enjoy in their own way and adults to enjoy separately -- it is a film meant to be shared by parents with their children, to bridge a gap between adolescents and adults, more than any animated film I've ever seen.
What that means is this could be one of Pixar's biggest films. Families will see it together in droves, repeat business will be through the roof, and word will spread among children, teens, and parents that it's the family film of the year and one of the greatest in Pixar's history. That's what Pixar's movies do when they get it right, and Inside Out is Pixar at its best. (Sorry to get into quality-review discussion here in the financial discussion, but this is important to mention in order to make the point about just how strong this film is going to be at the box office.)
But long-term prospects being extremely good is one thing, opening weekend is another. How is Inside Out likely to perform in that regard?
Let's turn again to the previous four movies for a moment and look at their opening weekends in North America. Monsters University opened to $82 million two years ago. Brave opened to $66 million three years ago. Cars 2 opened to $66 million four years ago. Toy Story 3 opened to $110 million five years ago. However, these were sequels in already-popular franchises, with the exception of Brave -- the one film that was an original instead of a sequel. That was a female-driven story, and it's also the lowest-grossing film of the bunch overall.
Except that none of that actually matters, because Brave actually opened against family-focused competition in the form of Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted (a film that went on to gross $746 million worldwide), plus strong competition for it's teen and older target audiences in the form of Snow White and the Huntsman and The Avengers. In addition, Brave had a more unique concept that frankly had a bit more trouble selling itself to the usual mainstream audiences for animated family fare, and less overt marketability via cute little animated characters who translate easily into toys and merchandise.
Still, the Toy Story 3 opening is one of just three exceptions (the other two being Monsters University and Ratatouille) to a rule that has seen every Pixar movie from 2001's Monsters Inc. onward opening in the $60-70 million range domestically. With such strong competition from Jurassic World -- which should do $90-100 million in North American business in its second weekend -- Inside Out appears headed for a typical Pixar opening weekend in the $60-70 million domestic range. I expect it will finish on the higher end of that estimate ($65+ million), and with some luck might even go a couple of million past $70 million.
This will be the first time a Pixar film didn't open in the #1 position at the domestic box office, but there's no way around that at this point. Lack of a first place spot won't matter, because it's going to be at least typical of the studio's opening numbers and likely on the higher end of those figures, which points to at least a standard $500-600 million worldwide run. Ultimately I believe it will finish higher, because I anticipate especially long legs for this one.
Now, let me explain what makes me confident Inside Out will have a long and lucrative theatrical run. Read on for my full review!
It's magical when a film completely subvert our expectations and yet make it feel so obviously right, so inevitable, and so perfectly true to life. There is emotional power in holding up something unexpected and making us realize we knew it all along, that it's some simple significant truth about the human condition. You won't see many films accomplish this better than Inside Out, and it manages to do it not just once but several times as the story builds toward its powerful, gut-punching conclusion. Rarely does any film, let alone an animated family movie, achieve the strength of character arc and emotional payoff Pixar put into this film.
Visually, the film alternates between the bright, creative style inside Riley's mind, and the real world Riley lives in. This real world is sometimes a nice place, but other times not so much. She's just moved to San Francisco from her happy childhood home in Minnesota, and her new home feels weird and lacking everything that made life enjoyable before. She's growing up, on the cusp of her teenage years, and so her relationships with other kids, with her parents, and even with her own memories are all starting to change.
How Inside Out tells this story, and how the seemingly funny little cartoon characters in her head end up showing us increasingly recognizable, painful transitions out of childhood that we all recognize, is smarter and more emotionally resonant than any of the trailers or colorful posters lets on. This film takes serious risks and cares enough about its characters to let them experience real emotional catharsis, and the resolution isn't at all what you'd expect. These are lessons rarely suggested even in adult-themed films, let alone films speaking to youth and families. The final ten minutes delivers one "holy cow" squeeze of your heart after another, and you don't have to be a parent to get choked up numerous times as the story plays out.
Inside Out is about many of those same themes, but it tackles them head-on and then piles on even more to boot. And somehow it manages to still remain filled with the sort of joy and silliness that children will love, perhaps even managing the balance a bit better than Toy Story 3 did (that film is amazing and among the greatest animated films of all time, but it admittedly gets extremely serious and sad much of the time and feels the least playful of just about any Pixar film).
The voice casting in Inside Out is spot on, featuring Amy Poehler as Joy, Phyllis Smith as Sadness, Lewis Black as Anger, Mindy Kaling as Disgust, Bill Hader as Fear, and Richard Kind as Bing Bong. The stand-out performance here is Phyllis Smith, who is nothing short of brilliant in her delivery and timing.
Everyone is great (this is a cast assembled from some of my absolute favorite comedy performers), but Smith channels something transcendent here and turns Sadness into a scene-stealer every time she's on screen. And she will break your heart over and over, even when you're also laughing. Hers is the performance on which all else depends, and that she got it so completely perfect allows the rest of the film to soar. Smith pairs with Poehler so well, I could've just watched them interact for hours and never grown tired of it.
Whether it can really join Beauty and the Beast, Up, and Toy Story 3 on the list of animated movies that garnered Best Picture nods, only time will tell. But it's certainly one of Pixars' finest creations, so since you and everybody else on the planet have apparently already seen Jurassic World, go see Inside Out this weekend for something entirely new and original.
Now, no Pixar picture is complete without an animated short to kick things off. And just as Inside Out is a triumph, so to is the remarkable Lava. At seven minutes, the story is told via a song in the tradition of Hawaiian music, with a simple ukulele and two singers. It features a lonely volcano who dreams of some day finding love, with his tale functioning as a myth about a Hawaiian island forming out of the ocean through the love of a volcano. Check out this clip, to get an idea of what it's like...
Lava joins Day & Night, Presto, Kiwi!, Hawaiian Vacation, and Burn-E as one of my favorite Pixar shorts. A simple yet moving concept depicted in the usual elegant and visually splendid Pixar style. Such a great original song, too! This one is a shoo-in for a Best Animated Short nomination, and should become an instant fan favorite too.
All box office figures and tallies based on data via Box Office Mojo and TheNumbers.
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