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Disney and Pixar Animation Studios just did something that has never been done in the 100-year history of The Walt Disney Company, and it couldn’t have happened at a better time.
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On Thursday, Disney and Pixar Animation Studios released the long-awaited first trailer for Pixar’s Inside Out 2, and the excitement and anticipation was almost palpable. Whether the release of the trailer was strategically planned on the morning following The Walt Disney Company’s fiscal fourth-quarter earnings call or just a coincidence with the date of the first trailer’s debut falling the day after the call, fans can’t be sure, but they’re positive about one thing: if the Inside Out 2 film is anything like the teaser trailer, we’re all in for a treat–and Disney might be too.
Disney’s Fiscal Fourth Quarter Earnings Call
On Wednesday, November 8, The Walt Disney Company hosted its earnings call for the company’s fiscal fourth quarter. Just after the closing bell on Wall Street, Disney CEO Bob Iger and interim CFO Kevin Lansberry began to present an in-depth look at the company’s performance in the months of July, August, and September 2023, which comprise Disney’s fourth quarter.
READ ALSO: The Walt Disney Company Announces Replacement for Former CFO Christine McCarthy
Credit: Disney Parks Blog
As September 30, 2023, was the final day of the company’s fiscal calendar year, Iger and Lansberry shared information about the company’s performance over the quarter, as well as over the year.
In many ways, Disney’s performance exceeded expectations set forth by many of Wall Street’s most trusted analysts–and in the eleventh hour. Disney+ made gains in its subscriber numbers, and Disney’s Parks, Experiences, and Products division saw numbers that were impressive in their own right–and all the more impressive when compared to the same quarter in Disney’s fiscal 2022.
Credit: Disney Parks Blog
But Disney’s numbers were only a part of the call, as CEO Bob Iger talked further about “building” the company, naming four main areas of focus. In February 2023, during the company’s first-quarter earnings call, Iger unveiled the company’s plan to immediately slash $5.5 billion in expenditures, and on Wednesday, he added $2.5 billion to that number, saying the company was on track to meet the goal of cutting $7.5 billion in spending as they had planned to do.
Disney’s Films Are a Sore Subject
Iger also talked about Disney’s film projects. It’s no secret that films across the company have been different variations of box office bombs. While some fans say it’s because of Disney’s newly adopted “woke” ideology, Iger talked about the effect the pandemic has had on the creativity in Disney’s films. He further said that the company began rolling out too many film projects at a time, effectively choosing quantity over quality–something he intends for the company to address immediately.
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But on Thursday, Disney and Pixar had a major victory with the release of the highly anticipated Inside Out 2. And they even broke a record in doing so.
Disney/Pixar Releases Teaser Trailer for ‘Inside Out 2’
The release of the first trailer for Inside Out 2 was an exciting occasion for The Walt Disney Company. On Thursday, the release of the trailer became the biggest animated trailer to launch in the company’s history. In just 24 short hours, the trailer amassed more than 157 million views, beating out the company’s record set by Frozen 2 in 2019.
Credit: Pixar Animation Studios
“We are thrilled so many people have tuned in to check out the new trailer for Inside Out 2,” said Pete Docter, Chief Creative Officer at Pixar. “When the first film came out, we knew that by telling a story where we could see our emotions—those little voices inside your head—there would be so much more to explore than we could possibly fit into one film.”
He continued by saying that the film’s director, Kelsey Mann, and the rest of the production team “have done such a great job with Inside Out 2, expanding the world and introducing new emotions that we’re very anxious for audiences to discover.”
“We couldn’t be more grateful to see the kind of response the trailer has received so far,” Docter added. “Thank you to all who have checked it out. We can’t wait for everyone to see the film when it comes to theaters next summer.”
Per The Walt Disney Company’s official website:
The film was especially a big hit on TikTok, bringing in 78 million views on the social media platform in the past day. Disney announced a first-of-its-kind content hub with TikTok last month to celebrate Disney’s 100th anniversary.
Undoubtedly, one of the reasons that Inside Out 2 was so popular was due to the introduction of the brand-new emotion, Anxiety.
Credit: Disney/Pixar Animation Studios
The frazzled but lovable orange emotion—who is voiced by Maya Hawke—will join Amy Poehler as Joy, Phyllis Smith as Sadness, Lewis Black as Anger, Tony Hale as Fear, and Liza Lapira as Disgust.
Disney and Pixar’s ‘Inside Out 2’ releases exclusively in theaters on June 14, 2024.
