14 sequels that outperformed the originals at the box office

• Over the last three decades, Hollywood has leaned into sequels.
• Now, sequels regularly make more at the box office than the original movies.
• “Inside Out 2” made $295 million worldwide on its first weekend. The first film made $130.7 million.

If you look at the top 20 highest-grossing movies of the 21st century, 13 are sequels.

At this point, if a sequel doesn’t make more than the original, it could even be considered a failure.

But Hollywood wasn’t always this way. “Star Wars,” for example, was a huge phenomenon when it came out in 1977, making $307 million domestically for its initial release, according to Box Office Mojo. But even though they were also huge hits, making $209 million and $252 million respectively, neither “The Empire Strikes Back” nor “Return of the Jedi” was able to outgross it.