Inside Out 2 has overtaken Dune: Part Two as the biggest box office debut of the year.

The Pixar animation, which was released on Friday (14 June), made $155m (£122m) in the US over the weekend. This easily surpassed Dune: Part Two’s $82.5m (65m) and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire’s $80m (£63m).

According to IMAX boss Rich Gelfond, the film outperformed expectations by nearly 50 per cent, and achieved the biggest box office opening since Barbie. Staggeringly, it has also beaten Frozen 2 to have the most successful opening for an animated film.

The development comes after Dune director Denis Villeneuve complained that his sequel, released in February, was still the year’s biggest film.

Variety estimates that Inside Out 2 only cost $60m (£47m) to produce.

Inside Out 2 comes as a relief for cinemas, following disappointing box office takings so far this year. Discluding the month when cinemas were closed during the pandemic, May’s US ticket sales were the lowest since 1999.

Two big blockbusters that have underperformed so far this summer include Emily Blunt and Ryan Gosling’s action comedy The Fall Guy, which failed to break even at the box office before being released digitally.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, a prequel to George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road, made an underwhelming $150m (£118.5m) worldwide, despite reportedly costing $168m (£123m) to produce.

Its opening was the lowest-earning Memorial Day weekend since the release of Casper in 1995.

The original Inside Out came out in 2015, and was a hit with audiences and critics. It won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and made $858.8m (£677.5m). It tells the story of a girl called Riley who is controlled by personified emotions. In the sequel, a teenage Riley experiences new feelings such as Anxiety, voiced by Maya Hawke.

Other films expected to perform well at the box office this summer include A Quiet Place: Day One on 27 June, Despicable Me 4 on 12 July, and Deadpool & Wolverine on 25 July.