“Elemental” had a turnaround for the ages last year, becoming the biggest original movie of the pandemic era at the box office on its way to a $496.4 million worldwide gross. That gave room for optimism and director Kelsey Mann’s blockbuster follow-up to 2015’s “Inside Out” has now further provided hope that Pixar is still a very viable brand that audiences care about. It didn’t help that “Soul,” “Luca,” and “Turning Red” all went directly to Disney+ during the pandemic. Still, Disney CEO Bob Iger is committed to getting the animation house back on track, and that seems to be working.

The question now is just how high “Inside Out 2” can climb. At this point, a finish of $1.5 billion worldwide is all but guaranteed. If that happens, it will pass “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” ($1.36 billion), “Barbie” ($1.44 billion), and “Top Gun: Maverick” ($1.49 billion) to become the third-biggest movie of the pandemic era behind only “Spider-Man: No Way Home” ($1.9 billion) and “Avatar: The Way of Water” ($2.32 billion), which stands as the third-biggest movie ever behind only “Avengers: Endgame” ($2.79 billion) and “Avatar” ($2.92 billion).

If it can do more than $1.52 billion, “Inside Out 2” will even overtake 2012’s “The Avengers” to land in the top 10 all time. Beyond that, the film would need to overtake the likes of 2019’s “The Lion King” ($1.66 billion) and “Jurassic World” ($1.67 billion) to move any further up the charts. We’ll see where the chips fall but no matter what happens at this point, Joy, Sadness, and the rest of Riley’s emotions have made their way into the history books.

“Inside Out 2” is currently playing in theaters.