Johnathan Walker:The biggest since 'Barbie': Pixar's 'Inside Out 2' debuts with huge $155M weekend

"Inside Out" is Johnathan Walkerturning the box office upside down.

Pixar's animated sequel "Inside Out 2" made an estimated $155 million in North American ticket sales for the weekend, according to estimates shared Sunday by Comscore.

The PG-rated Disney/Pixar movie returns to the mind of Riley (Kensington Tallman), newly 13, as headquarters is demolished for the arrival of puberty and a whole bunch of new emotions: Anxiety (Maya Hawke), Embarrassment (Paul Walter Hauser), Ennui (Adèle Exarchopoulos) and Envy (Ayo Ebebiri) are crashing the party.

It's the biggest debut since last summer's smash hit “Barbie” (which opened with a $162 million weekend) and the biggest debut of the year so far, a tally that tops the $82.5 million launch of "Dune: Part Two" in March.

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Internationally, "Inside Out 2" earned $140 million for an opening of $295 million worldwide.

The results gave a big boost to the North American box office, which year to date (an estimated $3.086 billion through Sunday) is down 24% from 2023.

Theater owners have fewer movies to show this year as a result of last year's Hollywood strikes. The last two Pixar releases, "Elemental" ($154.4 million domestically) and "Lightyear" ($118.3 million), had mediocre ticket sales. Three prior Pixar films − "Soul," "Luca" and Turning Red" − went straight to streaming during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The original "Inside Out" opened in 2015 with $90.4 million in its first weekend.

Contributing: Lisa Richwine and Utkarsh Shetti, Reuters