"Jurassic World" officially ended Pixar's 18-year streak of No. 1 hits. It wasn't for lack of trying -- or for lack of success.
"Inside Out," the latest original movie from Walt Disney Co DIS's Pixar , was promoted with several trailers and TV spots. Those promos, combined with the acclaimed Pixar name, helped "Inside Out" earn $91 million domestically -- just $11 million less than Comcast Corporation's CMCSA dinosaur adventure.
"Heading into the weekend, expectations were for a $100 million-plus second weekend for 'Jurassic World' and a solid $60 million-plus for 'Inside Out,'" Rentrak Corporation RENT Senior Media Analyst Paul Dergarabedian told Benzinga. "As it turns out, the two films wound up much closer than anyone anticipated with Pixar's latest delivering an incredible performance in its North American debut."
Tigress Financial Partners analyst Ivan Feinseth attributed some of "Inside Out's" success to the film's talent.
"It did surprisingly well," Feinseth told Benzinga. "It's got all the key voice people in the cast and it's a good movie. 'Jurassic Park,' you know, it's got the momentum."
'A Credit To Pixar'
Rob Enderle, principal analyst at Enderle Group, told Benzinga about the challenges Disney faced in releasing "Inside Out" one week after "Jurassic World."
"'Jurassic Park' is one of the big movies of the summer," said Enderle. "Whenever you bring out a brand-new movie, as opposed to a movie in a series, you take a high degree of risk. People will often go see the title they know over the title they don't."
On that note, Enderle said it was "unfortunate" that "Inside Out" ran against the dinosaur behemoth.
"If you think about it, the fact that it's doing well is a credit to Pixar," he added. "Little characters that exist in the mind of a child -- that's not the easiest thing to wrap your head around in terms of, do you really want to go see it or not, as opposed to, 'Okay, we're gonna go watch a bunch of guys fight dinosaurs.' The concept itself was probably not all that easy to sell, even though it's been getting great reviews."
'Continuing To Astound'
Dergarabedian said that "Jurassic World" is "continuing to astound" at the box office.
"The industry came out the winner with another big weekend and the second in a row that is up versus last year's comparable frame by a wide margin," said Dergarabedian. "This sets up a very nice box office momentum that will hopefully continue to boost the fortunes of what everyone has been counting on as a record-breaking summer movie season. In a showing of huge audience enthusiasm, just the top two films alone generated nearly $200 million in box office and the overall weekend will flirt with the $250 million mark!"
"Inside Out" may not have beaten "Jurassic World" but it did set a new record by earning $132 million globally.
"'Inside Out' posts the highest opening weekend for an original property in industry history and has a shot at becoming one of Pixar's biggest films ever," said Dergarabedian. "[It] could easily gain Oscar attention given the universal praise the film has been receiving from audiences and critics alike."
Disclosure: At the time of this writing, Louis Bedigian had no position in the equities mentioned in this report.
© 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
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