Inside Out 2 Finally Brings A Controversial Animated Movie Debate To An End

Inside Out 2's box office has reached another new milestone as it climbs higher among the highest-grossing movies ever, and passing 2019's The Lion King brings a controversial animated movie debate to an end at last. Pixar's 2024 animated movie has surpassed every box office projection on its way to making over $1.6 billion worldwide. This has made it responsible for knocking The Avengers out of the top 10 of all time. While beating The Avengers is massive, the movie's ability to surpass Disney's The Lion King remake from 2019 now is its latest accomplishment.

Becoming the ninth-biggest movie at the box office in history is a moment to further celebrate the success of the family-friendly animated film from Pixar, the powerhouse studio whose future looked more uncertain than ever before just a few years before. Inside Out 2's box office has broken records from the beginning and has continued to be a gigantic hit for the studio since then. Disney even declared it the highest-grossing animated movie ever once it beat Frozen II. That was not universally considered correct thanks to 2019's The Lion King, but Inside Out 2 is now on top for good.

2019's The Lion King Was Arguably Still The Highest-Grossing Animated Movie

The "Live-Action" Status Was Questioned

Inside Out 2 beating The Lion King's live-action remake officially ends the debate about the true record holder for the highest-grossing animated feature. Disney's decision to remake the original animated movie with director Jon Favreau always had its status as a "live-action" or "animated" movie questioned in the lead-up to its release and in the years after. This stemmed from the impossibility of using real lions, hyenas, elephants, and more native African wildlife to do this story in the same live-action remake mold of Disney's prior venture.

The movie was made entirely through CG, with Favreau even utilizing VR to create an entire set where they could shift camera locations, lighting, and more. The idea was to make the movie look as realistic as possible. But, unlike the physical human lead and limited sets utilized by Favreau in The Jungle Book, 2019's The Lion King had no live-action elements that were used throughout the production. However, it is confirmed that there is one real live-action shot in The Lion King, as Jon Favreau confirmed the movie's opening sunrise was an accurate Africa sunrise.

But one live-action shot does not single-handily make 2019's The Lion King a live-action movie. Plenty of animated movies have included brief live-action elements before, just as several live-action movies have used animation briefly at times. Since the movie required a team of CG animators to create the characters, locations, and more, it essentially was made like an animated movie, even as it attempted to have its live-action label.

The debate about its classification even extended to the awards circuit. The Golden Globes gave it a nomination in its Best Animated Movie category, and several other awards groups categorized it as an animated movie in other nominations. But, the Academy Awards gave The Lion King an Oscar nomination for Best VFX. That gave it some weight as a live-action movie, as only two traditional animated movies have ever been nominated in that category in 95 years. But, most factors would still point to it being more of an animated movie than a live-action movie.

Disney Never Considered 2019's The Lion King As An Animated Movie

And Neither Did Jon Favreau

Inside Out 2's box office performance is just another reminder that Disney never considered The Lion King to be an animated movie. The studio quickly celebrated Inside Out 2 beating Frozen II at the box office and becoming the highest-grossing animated movie ever. That may have drummed up more references to The Lion King still qualifying as the record-holder, but Disney has never acted as if the 2019 film was an animated movie. Frozen II's record high was congratulated after surpassing Frozen, even though The Lion King came out months earlier and still made more.

Looking beyond Disney repeatedly not considering The Lion King among the highest-grossing animated movies, how those associated with the film talked about it showed the preference to distance it from the animated or live-action label. Walt Disney Studios president of production Sean Bailey told THR that "Historical definitions don't work" when discussing The Lion King. He went on to say, "It uses some techniques that would traditionally be called animation, and other techniques that would traditionally be called live action" before noting that it's an "evolution" of technology Favreau used in The Lion King.

Even Jon Favreau carefully discussed whether the movie should be considered animated or live-action. He told the Academy of Animated Art years ago, "It depends what standard you’re using." Favreau noted the lack of real animals, cameras, or performances being used and said, "Everything is coming through the hands of artists." He also stated that the live-action and animated labels did not entirely fit his movie, suggesting that it is entirely different.

Inside Out 2 Officially Ends Any Debate About The Highest-Grossing Animated Movie

The Lion King Has Been Defeated

After six years of questioning whether The Lion King should be considered to be the highest-grossing animated movie, Inside Out 2 has thankfully brought the debate to an end. Pixar's sequel now has made $1.667 billion at the box office, just ahead of The Lion King's $1.662 billion. The $5 million difference is relatively small in the grand scheme of the two films' massive performances, but it is still enough to put any further debates to rest. Inside Out 2 is unquestionably the highest-grossing animated movie now.

Since The Lion King never even officially held claim to the title, the movie's overall standing in the record books is not that impacted, outside of sliding to ninth place all time. It is still Disney's highest-grossing remake of an animated movie. Once the name of a completely CG movie with a hyper-realistic animation style like The Lion King is made official, it will be the record-holder in that subcategory of movies.

How Inside Out 2 Beat 2019's The Lion King At The Box Office

They Had Different Paths To Success

Now that Inside Out 2 has officially passed The Lion King, its path to achieving it is quite impressive. 2019's The Lion King had an enormous opening weekend, breaking records for Disney's reimaginings of animated classics, the month of July, and for Favreau. Despite the gargantuan haul, it only had a 2.8 multiplier domestically after mixed critical reviews. The boost came internationally, with China ($120 million), the UK ($99 million), France ($80 million), Brazil ($69 million), and Japan ($62 million) finishing as the five biggest performers.

Inside Out 2 is well behind The Lion King in some of the aforementioned international territories, but it still made over $1 billion collectively, including a great $100 million performance in Mexico. The real strength of the Pixar sequel is that it has had incredible legs at the domestic box office. It's opening weekend was lower than The Lion King's, but it has a 4.2 multiplier and has made over $100 million extra stateside as a result. Inside Out 2's box office will keep increasing to put more distance between it and The Lion King.

Sources: THR, Academy of Animated Art