Korea Box Office: ‘Inside Out 2’ Leaps to Powerful Lead With $12 Million Debut Weekend

Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” leaped to a crushing first place debut at the South Korean box office on its opening weekend.

The American animation film earned $12.3 million from 1.75 million ticket sales between Friday and Sunday, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic). Over the five days since its Wednesday debut, it accumulated $14.7 million and 2.08 million ticket sales.

Those numbers gave “Inside Out 2” the third-highest opening weekend score this year at the Korean box office and the highest by an imported film. Kobis reports that it commanded an 84% share of the weekend theatrical market.

The numbers are also substantially stronger than those of the predecessor film. In July 2015, “Inside Out” opened in second position with 679,000 ticket sales and a gross of KRW5.34 million ($3.87 million at today’s currency exchange rates). The first film had endurance and became the 13th highest grossing film of that year in Korea with KRW27.5 million ($20 million).

The performance of “Inside Out 2” was enough to lift the overall Korean box office to its best weekend since mid-April and the sixth highest weekend of the year. After just five days of release, “Inside Out 2” is already the fourth highest achieving film of 2024 in Korea.

“Inside Out 2” was the biggest film of the weekend in the North American market and overall worldwide.

“Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” took second position at the weekend with $422,000, or less than a 3% market share. It now has an $11.4 million cumulative earned since May 22 and the year’s eighth best ranking.

Korean-made “Wonderland” earned $373,000 as it slipped from first place to third on its second weekend of release. The sci-fi fantasy about Artificial Intelligence has a 12-day cumulative of $4.03 million.

“Following” in fourth place earned $216,000 for a cumulative of $8.28 million since May 15.

Newly released Korean thriller “Drive” opened in fifth place. It sees a YouTube influencer kidnapped, stuffed in the trunk of her own car and required to earn her release by raising money through a live broadcast while still trapped in the car. It earned $185,000 between Friday and Sunday and $365,000 over its full five-day opening run.

Japanese animation, “Haikyu! The Dumpster Battle” held strongly in its fourth weekend. It earned $194,000 and now has a cumulative of $4.94 million.

European art house title “The Zone of Interest” earned $201,000 on its second weekend of release. It now has a total of $794,000 after 12 days in Korean theaters.

“The Roundup: Punishment” refuses to lie down. Already the year’s second biggest film in Korea, the crime-action-comedy added $167,000 over the weekend to lift its cumulative to $79.5 million since releasing on April 24.

New Korean film “Tarot” earned $92,700 in a three-day release.

“Bad Boys: Ride or Die” fell outside of the top ten on its second weekend of release in Korea and has a cumulative of KRW65 million ($4.70 million) after 12 days.