Disney’s blockbuster animated sequel Zootopia 2 has become the biggest Hollywood movie release of all time in China, in an extraordinary run (er, hop?) that set records all along the way.
Zootopia 2 – By The Numbers
Zootopia 2 topped $630 million in the Middle Kingdom last weekend, raising its worldwide gross to a staggering $1.8 billion and counting. While nobody doubted the film would be one of the year’s top releases, it’s safe to say nobody predicted such a phenomenal run. Nobody, that is, except maybe Disney’s marketing team, whose efforts in key markets payed tremendous dividends, as we’ll discuss momentarily.
And now it’s time to officially call it – Zootopia 2 will be the second-highest grossing film of 2025, behind only the Chinese animated release Ne Zha 2’s $2.26 billion cume. Avatar: Fire and Ash will remain in third place for the year, with a running total of $1.4 billion as it winds down.
Zootopia 2 opened with the fourth-largest debut weekend in history, and the biggest opening weekend of 2025 at the time – the latter record being quickly eclipsed when Avatar: Fire and Ash arrived a week later. The sci-fi sequel was expected to top $2 billion or close to it, but the momentum of Zootopia 2 kept it not far behind, and there is little doubt the animated film’s over-performance in key international markets ate into Fire and Ash’s potential audience enough to make a difference of probably millions of dollars at least.
The Avatar sequel is obviously still a huge box office success and once again set new standards in visual effects, but I suspect more kid-focused storytelling with less scares and more exploration of new parts of Pandora’s ecosystems, might’ve boosted the box office outcome in this modern children-first era of top-tier box office performance. That’s where the added oomph comes from to take a run at first – or in this case, second – place nowadays.
Zootopia 2 is now the highest-grossing animated film of all time besides Ne Zha 2, and the highest-grossing MPA release in history. It looks like Zootopia 2 will finish its run somewhere around $1.830 billion, depending on how much longer it remains in theaters. The continued record-breaking run is impressive enough at face value, but consider that the film has been available for home rental for two weeks while it also sets new theatrical records.
The strength of China’s box office contribution cannot be overstated, nor the overall immense power of the Asia-Pacific market more broadly, when talking about Zootopia 2’s remarkable box office run. This is where those Disney marketing efforts paid off big-time, turning the film into a cultural event in China. This and the wider embrace of Zootopia 2 in Asia Pacific markets seems to have been to the detriment of Avatar: Fire and Ash, to the tune of tens (if not potentially even a couple of hundred) million dollars.
Add in the kids-first audience factor, and I think that while speculative this is a pretty solid explanation for a lot of the underperformance of Fire and Ash. It wouldn’t have taken much to move that needle.
What’s interesting is, if I’m correct, then Disney wound up competing against itself in a way that likely suppressed the total ticket sales. A different release schedule that avoided so much overlap between the two films would’ve given Avatar: Fire and Ash more of that coveted target demographic overlap with families, and I would bet that alone could’ve pushed the film past $1.6-1.7 billion.
Adjust the storytelling perspective toward more of what The Way of Water achieved in kid-focused storytelling that explored the world more and offered a great deal of new environments and animals – the things everyone loves most and desperately wants more of from the franchise – and I think it makes a run at $2 billion or higher.
But that’s just my assessment, and it’s of course entirely speculation. The bottom line is, Zootopia 2 will be a $1.8 billion mega-hit, Avatar: Fire and Ash will be a $1.4 billion blockbuster, and Disney’s Lilo & Stitch was a huge success at $1 billion, giving Disney three of the top four spots on the 2025 box office chart and a combined $4.27 billion global gross. I imagine they’re too busy celebrating to worry about what-if scenarios that merely add a few piles of cash to the mountain.
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