2025 has had its fair share of huge animated films, but one that has gone slightly under the radar is The Bad Guys 2, the sequel to DreamWorks’ 2022 animated film. The company has been on a bit of a roll recently, with The Wild Robot, Kung Fu Panda 4, Dog Man, and the How to Train Your Dragon remake all being solidly successful.
The Bad Guys 2 was developed on a budget of $80 million, and so far, it has made $178 million, which, so far, still puts it behind the first film. The first Bad Guys was made for the same cost, and it ended its theatrical run after earning about $250 million, allowing the sequel to be greenlit.
While The Bad Guys 2 isn’t putting up numbers like Ne Zha 2 earlier this year, it is still doing very well. It’s the fourth highest-grossing animated movie this year overall, but it’s the top earner for Hollywood’s studios. That has put DreamWorks’ new franchise in a strong spot to continue.
The Bad Guys 2 Is About To Become A Box Office Success
Based on its budget, the film probably needs to make around $200 million in order to be considered a total box office success using typical Hollywood accounting. While The Bad Guys 2 has already been released on digital services following an early August release, the movie is still chugging along in theaters.
Generally, in order to break even, a film needs to earn double its budget at the box office in order to account for marketing and distribution costs.
The movie is very close to breaking the $200 million mark as of this writing. The film earned over $6 million at the domestic box office over Labor Day weekend, so the remaining $22 million is likely going to come over the course of the next few weeks, especially with international sales continuing.
When The Bad Guys 2 does pᴀss this milestone, it will more than likely lead to DreamWorks announcing yet another sequel in the franchise, finally turning this series into a full-blown trilogy. Both of The Bad Guys movies were great, and seeing a third film announced, especially after The Bad Guys 2‘s ending, would be fantastic to see.
This is especially exciting, considering the fact that The Bad Guys movies are based off a series of books by author Aaron Blabey. Though the movies don’t follow the plot of the books very closely, there is plenty of source material to mine for new ideas. The Bad Guys 2‘s success should very easily lead to more films becoming a reality.
