Top Film Industry Stories of 2015 #7:
Inside Out Brings Joy
By David Mumpower
January 19, 2016
BoxOfficeProphets.com
As the release date approached for Pixar’s latest release, Inside Out, the Disney-owned studio experienced a rare amount of pressure. After the unprecedented popularity of Toy Story 3, the most triumphant Pixar blockbuster to date, the next two films in the “franchise” barely earned as much in combination. Audiences never warmed to Cars 2 or Brave, with the former title’s performance not that surprising. Pixar never expected that film to match the performance of its predecessor. Instead, its intent was to sustain and grow the Cars merchandising library that is among the most lucrative of all Disney properties.
Pixar’s frustration with Brave was a bit more noteworthy. Upper management had noted that most of the Pixar library appealed to women, but few films directly targeted them. Under the Disney umbrella, they attempted to craft a new concept that catered to pre-adult females in the same way that Cars shamelessly enticed boys into buying any shirt, vehicle, or blanket with Lightning McQueen on it. The tepid response to Brave in terms of domestic box office and critical reviews left Pixar wondering if they’d overreached.
Even in 2012, Pixar already knew that Inside Out would theoretically appeal to the same people who had just collectively shrugged at Brave. The pressure was on. That was true in the early days of Inside Out production, and then the situation escalated in 2013. While Disney was still basking in the glow of Monsters University’s unexpected popularity in becoming their third most popular global release, Pixar knew they had a problem. Their anchor 2014 title, The Good Dinosaur, simply wasn’t ready for primetime.
In September of 2013, they delayed The Good Dinosaur until the holiday 2015 season, thereby taking Pixar off the 2014 box office calendar. For the first time since 2005, they wouldn’t release a movie during a calendar year. The studio felt the ramifications of this almost immediately. By November of 2013, company execs accepted that they were carrying too much staff while having no upcoming revenue. 67 Pixar employees lost their jobs only weeks before Christmas. It was one of the lowest moments in the history of their business.
With a black mark on their resume, no 2014 release impending, and The Good Dinosaur now slotted after Inside Out, the female-friendly project became one of the most important since the early days of Pixar. People involved with The Good Dinosaur understood that no matter how much they changed it, they had a bomb on their hands. That perspective proved perceptive.
As of this writing, the most recent Pixar title is their worst performer ever domestically, currently falling roughly $40 million short of A Bug’s Life. And that’s before we adjust for inflation. Its global take is currently less than $300 million, a first for the world’s most beloved animation studio. The Good Dinosaur is a true first for Pixar: a bomb. Its failure is so resounding, so complete, that it merited strong consideration as a Top Film Industry Story of 2015 on its own.
With no other help coming, all the pressure fell to the Inside Out team. If they failed to create an engaging story that became an immediate box office draw, Pixar would reach its lowest tide ever between the releases of their surefire sequels, Toy Story 3 and Finding Dory. Monsters University, which earned less in domestic revenue than its predecessor ever before box office inflation, would stand as the hit. People would consider the other four films as failures, diminishing the overall Pixar brand.
As you know, that didn’t happen. Disney started promoting Inside Out early, demonstrating a great deal of confidence about the premise. As originally marketed, it seemed to show the madcap inner workings of the brains of a mother, father, and daughter. People who remembered the generally forgotten Fox TV show immediately described it as an animated version of Herman’s Head. Pixar never shied away from that comparison, realizing that the concept was always superior to the TV show that claimed it.
With so much riding on the popularity of Inside Out, Disney eventually grew bolder. They revealed via new trailers that the film wasn’t so much about the entire family. Instead, it focused on an 11-year-old girl named Riley who felt her life being torn apart as she moved from the Midwest to California. It’s virtually every child’s worst fear to uproot their lives and start anew in a place where they don’t have any friends. Long months prior to the release of Inside Out, Disney was already pulling at our heartstrings.
Even with a killer concept, however, Inside Out was far from a sure thing. In the eyes of many North Americans, the bloom was off the rose with Pixar. Their recent fare simply had not matched the public’s perceptions lofty expectations for the studio. In order to give the film a chance, Pixar would have to prove that they were back in full force.
Disney’s ad campaign was methodical and sublime in this regard. They focused on establishing the characters from Riley’s inner monologue, developing Joy as the leader and Anger as delivering all the best jokes in the movie, even if Disgust wound up stealing this title in the end. They showed why communication breaks down between married characters, thereby enticing parents to want to bring their children to the film. And they also added a few terrific, hysterical gags such as the brain freeze and Anger’s lament about San Francisco pizza. This last part was critical to let people know Inside Out wouldn’t forget to bring the funny.
Disney walked a delicate tightrope in promoting the tender drama intrinsic to the plot while emphasizing the funny in the trailers. Finally and most important, they added the perfect song to build to an appropriate crescendo, Boston’s 1970s classic, More Than a Feeling. While Pixar deserves all the credit for the movie, Disney proved itself a worthy partner in the pre-release phase of Inside Out. Their pride over the quality of the project imbued viewers with confidence that this would be an instant classic Pixar release.
Early reviews also accomplished this task. Potential fence sitters learned in the days prior to the film’s release that was a masterpiece. The first 108 reviews for the film were glowingly positive. Then, some jerk ruined its perfect score on Rotten Tomatoes. Inside Out eventually “settled” for a 98% Fresh Rating. 296 out of 301 film critics who have reviewed the film gave it the proverbial thumbs up. Only one Top Critic on the site disliked Inside Out. Audiences agreed with these assessments. Inside Out currently claims a spot in the top 100 movies of all-time on IMDb.
Why does the story resonate so much? Inside Out delivers a heartfelt yet neutral evaluation of one of the oddest aspects of the maturation process. Children always long for the day when they’ll be able to do all the adult stuff. Simultaneously, grown-ups lament the days of yesteryear when they didn’t know all the things that they hate that they know now. By placing Riley in an unfamiliar setting, people get to watch her to try to find her place in the world, but Inside Out does more than that.
For the first time ever, a major animation studio embraces the task of examining depression. Pixar evaluates the root cause of unhappiness while tossing in the occasional warm hug to keep viewers engaged during Riley’s struggles. Notably, Inside Out adapts a profound piece of wisdom as its central storyline. Without Sadness, there can be no Joy. Part of a child’s development is finding a functional marriage of these seemingly conflicting emotions. No matter where anybody stands on the overall quality of the film, everyone should agree that what Pixar attempts is so ambitious and daring that they deserve extraordinary praise for their boldness.
Of course, this business is a numbers game. That’s the real reason why people will remember Inside Out as a complete triumph. Thanks to the restored faith in the Pixar brand and glowing early reviews, the film opened to $90.4 million domestically. In the process, it broke the record the largest tally ever for an original film property, eclipsing Avatar’s record by $13.4 million. Amusingly, it also set a second, slightly dubious record. Due to the juggernaut of Jurassic World winning the weekend, Inside Out also became the largest opener not to finish in first place.
When all was said and done, the Pixar redemption project became their third most popular ever domestically, grossing $356.5 million. Its global take of $853.6 million supplanted Monsters University to make it the third best Pixar performer overall. It also wound up as the sixth most popular film of 2015, over $250 million larger than the second biggest new property of the year, The Martian. Since that title was based on a book, the gap between Inside Out and the next most successful original idea of the year, San Andreas, was $380 million. That’s how staggering a triumph Inside Out was.