What Is ‘Ne Zha 2’ and How Is It the Highest-Grossing Animated Movie?

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• ‘Ne Zha 2’ Obliterates Box Office Records

What makes a movie popular enough to become one of the highest-grossing titles of all time? In the United States, it’s pretty straightforward. The top of the list is populated by Marvel, Avatar, Star Wars, and some Disney/Pixar franchise properties. It’s also easy to pick out when a new movie is predicted to net a big profit. But an animated flick from China is turning everything we know about high-grossing movies upside down.

China’s Ne Zha 2 has already shattered numerous box office records in the three weeks since its release. As of February 20, 2025, it’s the highest-grossing animated film, the highest-grossing Chinese film, and the highest-grossing non-English language film of all time. It ranks overall as the eighth highest-grossing film ever, with a huge $1.7 billion haul. That’s an impressive feat, especially when you consider that most American audiences did not know about Ne Zha 2‘s existence until its box office receipts were publicized. Its success is all thanks to its complete domination in its home country of China. But how did it manage to explode in popularity? And how many more box office records might come tumbling down?

‘Ne Zha 2’ Obliterates Box Office Records

Ne Zha 2

Release Date

January 29, 2025

Runtime

144 minutes

Director

Yang Yu

Writers

Yang Yu

Producers

Liu Wenzhang

• Lü Yanting

  Young Nezha (voice)

• Joseph

  Youth Nezha/Jie Jie Shou Zuo (voice)

So what is Ne Zha 2 all about? As the title implies, it’s a sequel to the 2019 film Ne Zha. The original flick was loosely based on the 16th-century novel Investiture of the Gods. Ne Zha was the feature debut of both its director and animation studio and was the first Chinese animated film to be released in IMAX. That first feature netted an impressive $742 million worldwide. It was a hit with both critics and audiences alike. With that success, it’s no surprise that a sequel was commissioned.

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Ne Zha 2 was produced for 600 million Chinese yuan or about $83 million US. That’s actually lower than most big-budget US CGI-animated films. Audience demand only grew from the original, as the sequel netted 1.1 billion yuan in the three days after its January 29, 2025, release. That translates to roughly $150 million US. By day nine post-release, the total had climbed to 6 billion yuan or $825 million US. The Ne Zha franchise’s popularity is attributed to its storytelling techniques, which combine traditional Chinese values with modern film conventions. On February 13, Ne Zha 2 became the highest-grossing film in a single territory (via Deadline). Its $1.37 billion (10 billion yuan) surpassed the $936 million that Star Wars: The Force Awakens earned in the United States alone.

As of February 17, the worldwide gross sits at just over 12 billion yuan or $1.7 billion worldwide. That’s enough to place it eighth on the list of highest-grossing movies of all time. That’s the highest ranking for both an animated and non-US film. At this rate, it’s all but certain that Ne Zha 2 will become the first-ever animated movie to reach $2 billion. Disney has to be seething right now. But how much farther could it go?

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In addition to the confirmed broken records, there are many more than Ne Zha 2 has in its sights. It’s less than $600 million away from Avatar: The Way of Water; knocking that off would catapult it into third place. From there, it’s a bit of a jump to Avengers: Endgame ($2.8 billion) and the original Avatar ($2.9 billion). But Ne Zha 2 is closer than halfway there. And after $1.7 billion in just three weeks, it could easily topple Avatar in the coming weeks and months. If it does, it could be the first title ever to hit that long-elusive $3 billion milestone. With a decline in big-name tentpole flicks, any new film ever again reaching those heights was thought to be an impossibility.

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While just one example, this shows how popular foreign cinema can be. Most American audiences did not even know that Ne Zha 2 was a thing until it was well past $1 billion. However, it actually did relatively well in the States. It debuted in Los Angeles on February 12, grossing $7.2 million over its first weekend in 660 theaters. Outside its niche audience, the film picked up more steam state-side when it bumped off Inside Out 2 as the world’s most successful animated film.

That marked an unpleasant milestone for Disney, as this is now only the second time in history that one of their films is not the highest-grossing animated title. They set the record with the world’s first animated movie, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, in 1937. A Disney or Pixar film has sat at the top ever since, save for an interruption by DreamWorks’ Shrek 2 from 2004 to 2010. But if Ne Zha 2 continues to climb past $2 billion, it’s safe to say that Disney could potentially never reclaim the animated crown.

Social media is abuzz with rave reviews for Ne Zha 2, and it’s safe to say that it made its mark on pop culture. It’s also ignited a fierce debate over the future of animation and whether Western culture should still be considered the dominant force. But when a movie so unknown in the US is able to take the world by storm, maybe there really is a shakeup in the highest spheres of animation. Ne Zha 2 is in theaters now.

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