Ne Zha 2 has beaten Inside Out 2 to become the highest-grossing animated movie of all time worldwide, but what is it, and how did it become such a smash hit? Inside Out 2 was Pixar’s 2024 sequel to their 2015 hit Inside Out, continuing the adventures of the personified emotions inside the head of pubescent girl Riley Andersen. The Oscar-nominated movie grossed $1.699 billion, breaking the box office record in late July 2024, when it surpᴀssed the $1.657 billion total earned by Disney’s 2019 pH๏τorealistic CG-animated remake The Lion King, which it had held for almost exactly five years.

When the Pixar movie topped the chart, it already seemed likely that the record would be short-lived and another animated movie would dethrone it before long. The roster of major animated movies set to debut throughout 2025 and 2026 already includes the upcoming Shrek 5, Zootopia 2, Toy Story 5, and Ice Age 6, all of which are sequels that are part of franchises which contain smash hit animated тιтles. In fact, the Shrek movies have collectively grossed $4 billion. However, the success of 2025’s Ne Zha 2 meant that the record lasted even more briefly than it originally seemed.

Ne Zha 2 Is A Chinese Animated Movie – What It’s About

It Is Based On A Centuries-Old Fantasy Epic

Ne Zha 2 may be relatively unknown to English-speaking audiences, but the 2025 animated movie is the sequel to the Chinese animated movie Ne Zha, which debuted in 2019. Both are based on Invesтιтure of the Gods by Xu Zhonglin, a novel about gods and demons that was originally published in the Ming Dynasty, more than 400 years ago. The original animated fantasy epic followed a boy, the тιтular Ne Zha, who becomes a demon hunter, while its sequel sees him caught in the middle of a conspiracy to foment discord between the dragon kings and the immortal Chan Sect.

Much of the cast and crew that worked on the original Ne Zha has returned for the sequel. This includes writer-director Jiaozi (who made his feature film debut with the original movie), producer Liu Wenzhang, and composer Wan Pin Chu (Immortal Demon Slayer). The Mandarin voice cast also features the return of Lü Yanting as young Ne Zha, Joseph Cao as adolescent Ne Zha, Han Mo as the dragon prince Ao Bing, Lü Qi as Ne Zha’s mother Lady Yin, Zhang Jiaming as Ne Zha’s master Taiyi Zhenren, and Yang Wei as Ao Bing’s master Shen Gongbao.

Ne Zha 2’s Box Office Broke Records In Its Opening Weekend

It Raced Up The Chinese Box Office Chart

Ne Zha opened in theaters in China on January 29, 2025, timed to line up with the celebration of the Lunar New Year. During its first three days in theaters, it earned 1.1 billion yuan, which converts to an opening weekend of roughly $151 million USD (which is more than Wicked, Moana 2, or Dune: Part Two earned in their domestic debuts). It became the first movie of the year to pᴀss the 1 billion yuan milestone, then spent the remainder of its first week beating 2021’s Detective Chinatown 3 as the fastest movie to reach 4 billion yuan.

Ne Zha 2 Is Now The Highest Grossing Animated Movie Ever, Beating Inside Out 2

The Pixar Movie Held The Record For Just Over Half A Year

Ne Zha 2 continued its rapid climb up the box office chart by earning $1.4 billion in China as of February 14 (per CNN) and breaking the record for the highest-grossing movie in a single region. That record was previously held by 2015’s Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens, which grossed $936.7 million at the domestic box office. Off the back of this mᴀssive gross, it then quickly became the highest-grossing animated movie of all time, surpᴀssing Inside Out 2 by hitting a worldwide total of $1.704 billion as of the time of writing.

This means that Inside Out 2 only held its record as the highest-grossing animated movie of all time for less than seven months. This is roughly one-tenth of the time that its fellow billion-dollar Disney movie The Lion King held the record before being dethroned. However, one factor that helped it retain that тιтle was the fact that theaters were shut down worldwide in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the marketplace took time to recover. The 2023 strikes, in which writers and actors fought for fair pay, similarly resulted in delays in addition to limiting movies’ marketing abilities.

How Ne Zha 2’s Box Office Compares To The First Movie

It Is Leaps And Bounds Ahead

This box office record for Ne Zha 2 is even more impressive considering the fact that it has pushed considerably past the worldwide total earned by the original movie. By the end of its run, Ne Zha earned 5.4 billion yuan, a total which converts to $742.7 million USD and made it the highest-grossing non-U.S. animated movie of all time worldwide at the time. However, that total paled in comparison to the sequel, which had already surpᴀssed that 5.4 billion yuan milestone in China alone by the end of its eighth day in theaters.

Ne Zha 2 sees the franchise growing at a similar rate to the Pixar movie that it dethroned. The original Inside Out only earned $858.3 million by the end of its theatrical run, meaning that Inside Out 2 earned 1.98 times its worldwide gross, almost exactly doubling its total. At the time of writing, Ne Zha 2 has done even better, more than doubling its predecessor by earning 2.29 times what Ne Zha grossed worldwide. Considering the fact that its theatrical run is still ongoing, it will continue widening the gap between itself and the original movie.

How To Watch Ne Zha 2

Its Release Is Expanding

Although Ne Zha 2 has earned the majority of its box office in mainland China, its release is slowly expanding across the globe. On February 13, it expanded to multiple other regions, including Australia, New Zealand, and Papua New Guinea. It is also set to debut in Hong Kong and Macao on February 22, followed by its Vietnamese debut on March 14. It is also currently playing in domestic theaters, having opened in Canada and the United States on February 14, debuting at No. 5 over the Presidents’ Day holiday weekend with a 4-day debut gross of $8.3 million.

Source(s): CNN