A week ago, “Ne Zha 2” become the first movie to ever make $1 billion or more in a single country, passing “Star Wars: Episode VII — The Force Awakens” ($936.6 million) for that record. The rate at which the sequel to 2019’s “Ne Zha” (which grossed $742 million in its day) has made its money is almost unfathomable. For some added context, “Inside Out 2” took months to claim its record, and did so by making more than $1 billion internationally. This movie has grossed fractional amounts of money in countries other than China. This is all being driven by China.
As of this writing, “Ne Zha 2” also sits ahead of 2015’s “Jurassic World” ($1.67 billion) on the all-time charts. Looking ahead, In a matter of days, it’s going to overtake 2021’s “Spider-Man: No Way Home” ($1.95 billion) to climb even higher on the charts. It’s all but assured that this will become just the seventh movie ever to make at least $2 billion worldwide, joining “Avengers: Infinity War” ($2 billion), “The Force Awakens” ($2.07 billion), “Titanic” ($2.26 billion), “Avatar: The Way of Water” ($2.32 billion), “Avengers: Endgame” ($2.79 billion), and “Avatar” ($2.92 billion).
Just how high can we expect it to climb? At this point, it’s probably going to land somewhere between “The Force Awakens” and “Endgame.” We could be looking at the third-biggest movie ever before long. That is truly wild. This is a big reason why Hollywood can no longer depend on China for box office grosses, as the country is prioritizing homegrown releases. It’s not hard to see why.
On the plus side, this does help demonstrate that the global box office is on an upward trajectory after a rough few years in the aftermath of the COVID-19 lockdowns. It may not help Hollywood directly, but it can and probably will be taken as a good sign nonetheless, broadly speaking. I spoke more about the movie, as well as some other box office and movie/TV news, on today’s episode of the /Film Daily podcast:
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“Ne Zha 2” is in theaters now.
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