The Biggest Box Office Hit Of 2025 Is An Animated Sequel You Probably Haven’t Seen

It’s still pretty early into 2025, but January is in the books and we have at least a few new movies out in the world. All things considered, it was a pretty quiet month at the box office, with movies like “Wolf Man” falling short of expectations. That’s in North America though. Elsewhere in the world, namely China, theaters are overflowing with patrons who are eager to see what wonders await them in the cinema. In particular, an animated sequel now stands as by far the biggest movie of the year overall — and it’s not even remotely close.

“Ne Zha 2,” the sequel to 2019’s blockbuster “Ne Zha,” debuted this past weekend in China. To say that it had a big opening would be a dramatic understatement. Over the Lunar New Year holiday in the country, the animated film opened to nearly $300 million in just two days. As of Monday, February 3, the film had already amassed $432.2 million, per Variety. That’s truly just the tip of the iceberg though.

The film added another $117 million on Monday, meaning its total is now north of $550 million. Pretty much by the end of this sentence, it will be past $600 million. By next weekend? Who knows. The sequel has also been a monster on IMAX and broke the five-day record set by Disney’s “Moana 2” ($386.3 million) over Thanksgiving last year.

For further context, only 13 Hollywood productions made more than $432 million globally in 2024. “Ne Zha 2” did that in a matter of days. It’s soon going to pass “Inside Out 2” ($653 million) to become the biggest animated movie ever in a single country. If things keep going like this, we might be looking at the first $1 billion grosser in a single market. This is an absolute monster.

Directed by Jiaozi, “Ne Zha 2” is loosely based on the book “Investiture of the Gods.” The first entry, released in 2019, did staggering business as well, pulling in more than $740 million globally, with damn near all of that money coming from Chinese ticket buyers. It’s movies like this, as well as unexpected box office hits such as “Wolf Warrior 2” ($870 million), “Hi, Mom” ($822 million), “The Wandering Earth” ($670 million), and “The Battle at Lake Changjin” ($902 million) that have led to China prioritizing its own films, as opposed to throwing more support behind American-produced fare.

That has implications for Hollywood, as studios can no longer depend on robust box office returns from China the way they could in the pre-pandemic era. That aside, this is also a reminder that it truly is a global theatrical marketplace and, broadly speaking, movies doing well is a good thing for theaters. At the same time, “Ne Zha 2” is getting a U.S. release, but it’s unlikely to break out in a meaningful way.

Looking beyond “Ne Zha 2,” China also had several other huge releases over the Lunar New Year, including “Detective Chinatown 1900” ($129.3 million weekend) and “Creation of the Gods II: Demon Force” ($42.9 million weekend). The full five-day frame delivered more than $1.2 billion in ticket sales. Meanwhile, the biggest American release of 2025 thus far is “Den of Thieves 2: Pantera,” with just shy of $50 million total. That’s quite the gap.

What’s going on in China right now suggests that the global box office could rebound in a big way this year. Last year, the entire global box office totaled $30 billion, which was less than what Netflix alone produced in revenue. The Lunar New Year box office was more than 230% above last year’s in China, which is a good sign. Not necessarily for Hollywood, per se, but again, focusing on the bigger, global picture. The desire for the big screen experience rages on.

“Ne Zha 2” hits theaters in the U.S. later this month. You can rent the first “Ne Zha” on Amazon Prime Video.