08:26 AM EDT, 06/17/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Walt Disney Co. ( DIS ) scored a box-office hit over the weekend as "Inside Out 2" marked the second-highest opening for an animated film ever, showing demand among moviegoers remains strong, according to B. Riley Securities.

The film, a sequel to 2015's "Inside Out," brought in $155 million in the domestic box office from Friday through Sunday, according to BoxOfficeMojo, which is owned by Amazon.com's (AMZN) IMDb. Worldwide, the movie brought in $295 million, the data showed.

"The film crushed all expectations," Eric Wold, an analyst with B. Riley, said in a note emailed Monday. The result for the Pixar film comes after a "slow start to the summer season," with the hangover from last year's strikes in the US entertainment industry still being felt, he said.

In second spot at the domestic box office was another sequel, "Bad Boys: Ride or Die" from Sony Group ( SONY ) , earning $33 million on the weekend and $112.2 million total since its release.

B. Riley cited data fom Hollywood news site Deadline and comScore (SCOR) PostTrak as showing that about 52% of the audience for "Inside Out 2" are subscribers to the Disney+ streaming service. "We believe this shows how important it is for studios to dip into consumers' wallets multiple times for key movies as opposed to releasing them directly to their respective streaming platforms," Wold said.

The strong weekend comes as the box office still trends below levels seen in 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic that shuttered movie theaters. So far in the second quarter, the domestic is $1.23 billion, a decline of about 46% from five years ago, B. Riley said.

"While overall box office results (year-to-date) have been less than stellar due to the film slate disruption caused by the Hollywood strikes last year, we continue to believe moviegoing demand remains intact, and we just need a more consistent film slate that can benefit from pre-show trailers," Wold said.

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