{"id":259349,"date":"2025-05-27T07:11:25","date_gmt":"2025-05-27T07:11:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/american-history\/americanstudies-may-27-2025-2020s-blockbusters-inside-out-2\/"},"modified":"2025-05-27T07:11:25","modified_gmt":"2025-05-27T07:11:25","slug":"americanstudies-may-27-2025-2020s-blockbusters-inside-out-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=259349","title":{"rendered":"AmericanStudies: May 27, 2025: 2020s Blockbusters: Inside Out 2"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n

[Moviegoing
\nhas unquestionably changed a great deal in recent years, but there is still a
\nplace for the summer blockbuster, and I believe there always will be. So for
\nthe unofficial kickoff of another summer season, I wanted to AmericanStudy a
\nhandful of recent such blockbusters!]<\/p>\n

On two
\ndistinct ways to contextualize the highest-grossing film<\/a>
\nof 2024.<\/span><\/p>\n

First of
\nall, there\u2019s absolutely nothing surprising about the fact that Inside Out 2<\/i>
\nwas 2024\u2019s top-grossing film. As the above hyperlinked list illustrates, five
\nof the year\u2019s top ten films were animated, and a sixth (Mufasa: The Lion
\nKing<\/i>) could certainly be defined as such as well (and at least represents a
\nsequel to an animated film; well, a prequel, but you know what I mean!). Moreover,
\nthe other four of the five top-grossing Pixar films<\/a>
\nof all time were likewise sequels, including Incredibles 2<\/i>, Finding
\nDory<\/i>, and the third and fourth installments in the Toy Story<\/i>
\nfranchise. While animated films might not fit our stereotypical definition of a
\nsummer blockbuster (at least not as well as did yesterday\u2019s subject Top Gun:
\nMaverick<\/i>, for example), in truth there\u2019s no surer thing in Hollywood than
\ndrawing kids to the movies over the summer, and of course most such kid
\naudience members will require at least one adult ticket purchase to accompany
\nthem. Moreover, while many films over the last few years have not made it to
\ntheaters at all, it seems to me that big-budget animated films are still likely
\nto have at least some form of theatrical run, making it even more probable than
\never that such films will occupy prominent places in the roster of box-office blockbusters.<\/span><\/p>\n

With all
\nthose caveats aside, however, it\u2019s still interesting to me that Inside Out 2<\/i>
\nspecifically tops both of these lists (ie, is both 2024\u2019s and Pixar\u2019s highest-grossing
\nfilm), and I think we can contextualize that striking success in a couple distinct
\nways. I haven\u2019t seen the film, but from what I can tell it is very much in
\nconversation with a longstanding and consistently popular film genre: high
\nschool dramedies, and especially high school dramedies focused on teenage girls\u2019
\nexperiences. That is, by aging the original Inside Out<\/i>\u2019s protagonist Riley
\nAndersen up two years and making her an incoming high school student in the sequel,
\ndirector
\nKelsey Mann<\/a> and her co-screenwriters Meg LeFauve
\nand Dave Holstein<\/a> made a very smart choice, taking what had been more of a children\u2019s
\nfilm initially and shifting it into that teen\/high school setting and genre. To
\ncite just one example (of a film celebrating its 30th<\/sup> anniversary
\nthis summer, which doesn\u2019t make me feel ancient or anything), Clueless<\/i> (1995)
\nwas one of the most unexpected summer
\nblockbusters<\/a> of the 1990s, raking in more than $10 million its opening
\nweekend to put it just behind the far more conventional summer film Apollo 13<\/i>
\nin that weekend\u2019s box office. Teenagers might be an even more reliable summer
\naudience than young kids, as they can get themselves to the movies\u2014and these consistent
\nteen hits indicate as much. <\/span><\/p>\n

It would
\nbe wrong to suggest that such teen hits always or only focus on female
\nprotagonists\u2014Stand
\nBy Me<\/a><\/i> (1986) opened in August, to name just one male-centered teen
\nblockbuster. But I do believe that a significant majority of these summer successes
\nare more focused on female characters and thus (to be reductive about it I know)
\non appealing to women as a primary audience\u2014and in the case of Inside Out 2<\/i>,
\nwhile of course its female protagonist was an existing character to whom the
\nsequel understandably returned, I think it missed an opportunity to add in a teenage
\nboy as (for example) a second protagonist with his own set of animated
\nemotions. I fully understand how fraught that idea might be in execution (as
\nthe Dad of two still-teenage sons, believe me I fully understand it), but I
\nwould also note (as many
\nothers have<\/a> as well) that one of the central stories of the last few years
\nhas been a two-part failure
\nto engage with teenage boys\u2019 emotional lives<\/a>: a failure of our society as a
\nwhole to do so; and a concurrent failure of teenage boys to find healthy
\noutlets for doing so, leading far too many of them to the likes of Jordan
\nPeterson and Joe Rogan<\/a> et al. Obviously those are issues way beyond any one
\nfilm or even the medium as a whole\u2014but if there\u2019s gonna be an Inside Out 3<\/i>,
\nI\u2019d love for it to take a stab at the complicated and crucial question of young
\nmen\u2019s emotional lives. <\/span><\/p>\n

Next
\nblockbuster tomorrow,<\/span><\/p>\n

Ben<\/span><\/p>\n

PS. What
\ndo you think? Summer blockbusters, recent or otherwise, you\u2019d analyze?<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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