It's Okay to Be Anxious... 'Inside Out 2' Captures the Laughs and Tears of Adolescent Emotions

Part 1 Earns 182.2 Billion Won... Sequel Released After 9 Years
330,000 Viewers in Two Days, '66.4% Reservation Rate'
Sequel Features Anxiety, Embarrassment, Boredom, and Envy

Movie 'Inside Out 2' stills
[Photo by Walt Disney Company Korea]

The Disney·Pixar animated film Inside Out 2 is showing remarkable box office momentum. The movie attracted 330,000 viewers within two days of its release. The newly added emotional characters in the sequel?Anxiety, Embarrassment, Envy, and others?are praised for delivering warm comfort. It is regarded as living up to its reputation as an "animation enjoyed by adults as well."

According to the Korea Film Council's integrated box office data on the 14th, Inside Out 2 drew 135,782 viewers the previous day. Its revenue share was 67.3%. More than half of the total 203,563 moviegoers that day watched this film. Since its release on the 12th, it has accumulated 332,286 viewers. Considering that the 12th and 13th were weekdays (Wednesday and Thursday), this is a notable achievement. Recently, it has been rare for films to attract over 100,000 viewers on weekdays.

As of 10 a.m. on the day before the first weekend since release, Inside Out 2 recorded a real-time reservation rate of 66.4% (415,726 tickets). It is expected to surpass 1 million cumulative viewers over the weekend. It is almost unheard of for films to break 1 million viewers in their first weekend these days. Kung Fu Panda 4, which was released in April and became the first animation this year to exceed 1 million viewers, took 11 days to reach that milestone.

According to CGV's reservation distribution data on the same day, 66.1% of Inside Out 2 reservations were made by women and 33.9% by men. By age group, the breakdown is 20s (29.6%), 30s (28.3%), 40s (24.5%), and teens (8.4%).

The first film, Inside Out (2015), was a box office hit in Korea with 4.97 million viewers. Globally, it earned $857.6 million (1.1822 trillion KRW) in box office revenue. With a production budget of $175 million (241.2375 billion KRW), it generated profits of four to five times that amount.

The first installment depicted the story of five emotions?Joy, Sadness, Anger, Disgust, and Fear?existing in the emotional control center inside the mind of Riley, a girl born in Minnesota, USA. It succeeded in drawing universal empathy and became a hit. The story, which delivers laughter and comfort, was praised for embracing not only teenagers but also adult audiences.

In the second film, Riley enters adolescence at age 13. New and unfamiliar emotions?Anxiety, Embarrassment, Boredom, and Envy?appear in her emotional control center, disrupting her peaceful daily life and portraying the crisis and adventure that begin anew. Anxiety, filled with worries, protects Riley from unknown dangers and constantly considers the worst-case scenarios to prevent mistakes. Anxiety pushes Riley to achieve her goals perfectly, sometimes suppressing the existing emotions.

Director Kelsey Mann said, "'Anxiety' forces Riley to change in order to be accepted by others. It changes the true self to be accepted by others. I wanted to ask whether it is really necessary to change oneself just to be seen well by others." Story director McKenna Harris explained, "We wanted to make it clear that 'Anxiety' is not a typical villain by treating it with empathy and compassion. Anxiety is not a bad character; it only wants Riley to do well."

Inside Out 2 is as fun, funny, and moving as the first film. The comfort conveyed in the process of finding one’s true self is significant. Like the original, it offers points that adults can relate to. Amid the recent underperformance of several Korean films released, attention is focused on whether this popular sequel from a renowned Hollywood animation studio will succeed domestically.