Strong Opening Night For ‘Inside Out’, Still Won’t Take Down ‘Jurassic World’
Despite a strong opening night, Inside Out will likely not topple current box office king Jurassic World this weekend.
With an estimated $34 million on opening night, Inside Out claimed the top spot on Friday. But industry executives still expect Jurassic World, the fourth installment in the Jurassic series, to win the weekend. Studios expect Jurassic World to bring in over $100 million over the course of the weekend, and Inside Out is expected to claim around $90 million. Pixar movies of late have been bringing in between $60-$80 million on opening weekend.
Assuming the estimations are correct and Inside Out – a Pixar film that stars Amy Poehler, Mindy Kaling, and Phyllis Smith as the voices of human emotions – does not topple Jurassic World, it will be the first time a Pixar title did not claim the top spot on opening weekend in its history. But Inside Out has received rave reviews from critics, and is expected to have a long run in theaters, which will likely help it to bring in just as much, if not more, than the usual Pixar film.
Rotten Tomatoes is currently showing a 98 percent fresh rating for Inside Out (which is a good thing, just to be clear), compared to a 71 percent rating for Jurassic World. But ratings aren’t everything, as evidenced by The Spy, which stars Melissa McCarthy and Jason Statham. It scored a 95 percent according to Rotten Tomatoes, but in the two weeks since its release, it has only brought in $15.6 million.
On Thursday night preview or midnight showings, Inside Out brought in $3.7 million, which marks the best performance ever for not only a Pixar film, but for a Disney animated film as well.
Also new this week is the film Dope, the darling of the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, which brought in $2.4 million Friday.
Jurassic World set a U.S. opening weekend record with $208.8 million, and continued to perform well throughout the week, climbing to $296 million through Thursday. It was the fastest movie ever to reach $300 million domestically. Jurassic World could even challenge 2012’s The Avengers for the second weekend record of $103 million.
Heading into this weekend, The Avengers: Age of Ultron had grossed $444.78 million domestically, leading the pack of movies still in theaters. Furious 7, still running in a few hundred theaters, sits at $350.83 million. Inside Out’s strong opening puts it ahead of the majority of films still in theaters today, while Jurassic World could take the overall lead this weekend.
[Image via Chicago Tribune]
