Summary
- Ne Zha 2 surpassed Inside Out 2’s global box office record in just 23 days.
- Ne Zha 2 achieved a record-breaking $1.73 billion gross in a single market, China.
- Ne Zha 2’s success was boosted by Captain America’s poor performance, positioning the film to compete with Hollywood giants.
It’s not quite a happy day for Disney and Pixar executives. Inside Out 2’s five-month-long reign as the biggest animation of all time has been cut short by an increasingly popular Chinese animation sequel: Ne Zha 2.
Inside Out 2 was released on June 14, 2024, and took global audiences on another wild ride inside Riley Andersen’s teenage mind and her not-so-agreeing personified emotions. With a global box office haul of $1.69 billion, it became an unprecedented hit for Disney and Pixar, defying the odds to become not just the highest-grossing animated film ever, but the highest-grossing movie of 2024—unbeaten by even Deadpool & Wolverine—and doubling the $858 million gross of its predecessor.
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Ne Zha 2 Has Grossed $1.73 Billion in 23 Days
…and It Did So in a Single Market
Inside Out 2 achieved its surprising record in September 2024. Five months later, it has been handed the shortest reign atop the animation genre’s all-time box office charts by Ne Zha 2. According to box office analyst, Luiz Fernando on X, the Chinese juggernaut ousted the Pixar animation after hitting $1.71 billion in its 21st day in Chinese theaters; it currently stands as $1.73 billion as of the time of this writing. Ne Zha 2 beat Inside Out 2’s record while mostly showing in a single market: China.
Captain America: Brave New World’s disastrous performance in China is helping Ne Zha 2
Although it was granted a very limited showing in the U.S., with just 660 theatres, the film grossed $10 million in 6 days, which is a record for Chinese releases and the 18th highest for a non-English animation in the market. Ne Zha 2’s record goes beyond the animation genre. It is the first and only movie to hit the $1 billion threshold in a single market, after besting Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ $936 million domestic gross and is already on track to become the first non-Hollywood film to reach $2 billion.
The “Ne Zha” folklore—about an unruly demon boy who fights dragons—has always been insanely popular with the Chinese audience, evident in the $742 million gross of Ne Zha in 2019. Captain America: Brave New World’s disastrous performance in China (grossing a mere $12 million in its first week and finishing fifth) aided Ne Zha 2’s ballooning by leaving it with virtually no competition at the box office.
News of Ne Zha 2’s prominent rise is already permeating Hollywood and the general audience of the English-speaking world, leaving ears curious to know how a non-Hollywood animation is making so much. It’s already instilling national pride in its home audiences, who are rallying their immense population to push the film past Avatar’s record of $2.8 billion. That may seem far-fetched at first glance, but by the time it reaches $2 billion—which analysts think could come as early as next week—the entirely Chinese-made animation may likely start to put fear in the chart-topping trio of Avatar, Avengers: Endgame and Avatar: The Way of Water, if it isn’t already. Ne Zha 2 is currently the eighth highest-grossing film of all time, displacing Inside Out 2, and could move up the ladder very fast. Could Pixar do the unthinkable with Inside Out 3?
Inside Out 2
- Release Date
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June 14, 2024
- Runtime
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96 Minutes
- Director
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Kelsey Mann
- Writers
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Meg LeFauve, Dave Holstein, Kelsey Mann
Source: Luiz Fernado/X
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