Chinese animation sensation Ne Zha 2 is now on track to become the highest-grossing theatrical animation release of all time, a remarkable feat considering that it will achieve the milestone from its gross in China alone. The record is expected to be broken within the next three days.
Bookmark this post for regular updates on the film’s stunning box office performance and what it means more broadly for the animation world:
February 17, 1:45pm PT — The Chinese New Year holiday period has ended and so has winter vacation for students, which led to a significant decline in today’s box office gross. Ne Zha 2 grossed $26.1 million on Monday, its 20th day of release, pushing its overall box office in China to $1.659 billion. The film has now passed Disney’s 2019 The Lion King remake ($1.656 billion) to become the second-highest grossing animated feature of all-time.
The film has also now entered the top 10 highest-grossing films of all-time, both live-action and animation. It is the first non-American film to enter the top 10, but there’s another key difference: Ne Zha 2′s entire gross is from a single country, while the total for every other film on the list is for a global release that was available to a signifcantly bigger audience. Here is the current list of highest-grossing films:
- #1 – Avatar – $2.92 billion
- #2 – Avengers: Endgame remake – $2.79B
- #3 – Avatar: The Way of Water – $2.32B
- #4 – Titanic – $2.25B
- #5 – Star Wars: The Force Awakens – $2.06B
- #6 – Avengers: Infinity War – $2.04B
- #7 – Spider-Man: No Way Home – $1.92B
- #8 – Inside Out 2 – $1.69B
- #9 – Jurassic World – $1.67B
- #10 – Ne Zha 2 – $1.65B
February 16, 6:39pm PT — Ne Zha 2′s phenomenal performance at the Chinese box office has come at the expense of the long-running Boonie Bears franchise. Boonie Bears: Future Reborn, the 11th film in the franchise, opened on the same day as Ne Zha 2 and today it finally passed the $100 million mark. While the figure is quite solid for most Chinese animated features, it’s a disappointing performance for Boonie Bears. Last year, the franchise’s 10th film, Boonie Bears: Time Twist, grossed over $275 million in China, while in 2023, Boonie Bears: Guardian Code earned $220 million.
It will be interesting to watch how Ne Zha 2 will impact future animation releases in the country. On February 28, a duo of international films open in China — Naoko Yamada’s The Colors Within and Gints Zilbalodis’ Flow. Currently, both films are projected to earn under $10 million, with The Color Within projections ranging from $2-8m and Flow anticipating $2-3m.
February 16, 6:23pm PT — On Sunday, Ne Zha 2′s 19th day of release in China, the movie grossed $84.5 million in its homeland, lifting its Chinese gross to $1.63 billion. The film is still in third place for all-time highest-grossing animated film, but should pass both The Lion King remake and Inside Out 2 sometime next week to become the highest-grossing animated film of all time. Here is the all-time list as it currently stands:
- #1 – Inside Out 2 – $1.69 billion
- #2 – The Lion King remake – $1.65B
- #3 – Ne Zha 2 – $1.63B
- #4 – Frozen 2 – $1.45B
- #5 – The Super Mario Bros. Movie – $1.36B
- #6 – Frozen – $1.29B
Cumulative Boxoffice Comparison
🟤#哪吒之魔童闹海 #Nezha2
🟢#长津湖 #TheBattleatLakeChangjin
🟠#战狼2 #WolfWarrior2
🟣#你好李焕英 #HiMom
🔴#哪吒之魔童降世 #NeZha
🔵#流浪地球 #TheWanderingEarth#ChinaBoxOffice #BoxOffice pic.twitter.com/58bueEfv3p— 防弹松鼠 (@bulletproofsqui) February 16, 2025
February 16, 4:30pm PT — Ne Zha 2 exploded onto U.S. and Canadian screens this weekend, driven by strong ticket sales in urban centers with a large Chinese population. In North America, the film opened in fifth place with an estimated $7.2 million through the weekend, and is looking at $8.3 million over the four-day President’s Day holiday period. Remarkably, the film managed these numbers from only 660 theaters, for a $10,909 per-theater average, the second best average among the top 20 films, trailing only Captain America: Brave New World ($21,559 per-theater average). For comparison, Dog Man earned an estimated $9.7m this weekend from 3,334 theaters for a per-theater average of $2,918.
February 15, 9:30am PT — On Saturday, Ne Zha 2′s 18th day of release in China, the film grossed a staggering $107.3 million in China. That was the film’s best day at the Chinese box office since its seventh day of release. The film’s total from Chinese theaters now stands at $1.54 billion, surpassing the $1.45 billion of Walt Disney Animation Studios’ Frozen 2 to become the third-highest-grossing animated film in history.
February 14, 11:20pm PT — The English subtitled version of Ne Zha 2 opened across roughly 750 theaters in the United States today. Early projections, via Deadline, show the film landing in fifth place over the President’s Day holiday, with $5.9 million in the Friday-Sunday period, and $6.5 million over the four-day holiday period.
February 14, 7:15pm PT — Since 1937, when the Walt Disney Company released Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the studio has owned the title of highest-grossing theatrical animated film for all but six years. The only period when it previously lost the title was in 2004 when Dreamworks Animation’s Shrek 2 became the highest-grossing animated film, but Disney recovered the title in 2010 with Toy Story 3 and has held it ever since, topping itself with Frozen in 2013 ($1.3 billion), The Lion King cg remake in 2019 ($1.65 billion), and Inside Out 2 in 2024 ($1.69 billion). In a few days, Disney will lose the title again to Ne Zha 2, which is currently headed to north of $2 billion.
February 14, 3:30pm PT — On Friday, Ne Zha 2′s 17th day of release in China, the film grossed $78.8 million, lifting its overall total to $1.43 billion from Chinese theaters. The film is distributed by CMC Pictures, and directed by Yu “Jiaozi” Yang.
After passing The Super Mario Bros. Movie yesterday, Ne Zha 2 is currently fourth on the all-time highest-grossing animated film list, behind three Disney animated films. The list as it currently stands:
- #1 – Inside Out 2 – $1.69 billion
- #2 – The Lion King remake – $1.65B
- #3 – Frozen 2 – $1.45B
- #4 – Ne Zha 2 – $1.43B
- #5 – The Super Mario Bros. Movie – $1.36B
- #6 – Frozen – $1.29B
Chinese tracking firm Maoyan is currently projecting that Ne Zha 2 will exceed $2 billion in Chinese box office gross. Only six films have ever reached the $2B milestone, and none animated.
The film’s daily gross is still rising at a torrid pace and it isn’t following the box office trajectory of other top-grossing Chinese films, which typically flatten out after a couple weeks. See chart below:
Cumulative Boxoffice Comparison
🟤#哪吒之魔童闹海 #Nezha2
🟢#长津湖 #TheBattleatLakeChangjin
🟠#战狼2 #WolfWarrior2
🟣#你好李焕英 #HiMom
🔴#哪吒之魔童降世 #NeZha
🔵#流浪地球 #TheWanderingEarth#ChinaBoxOffice #BoxOffice pic.twitter.com/x7iS6B1hFQ— 防弹松鼠 (@bulletproofsqui) February 14, 2025
The fact that Ne Zha 2 will gross $2 billion in a single market is a monumental accomplishment. Prior to this film, no title — live-action or animated — had even crossed $1 billion in a single market.
The previous single-market record was an American film — Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens — which grossed $936 million during its U.S. run. In China, the record was held by The Battle at Lake Changjin, which grossed 5.77 billion yuan, or roughly US$913 million at the time of its release.
