Ne Zha 2has beatenInside Out 2to 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 2was Pixar’s 2024 sequel to their 2015 hitInside 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 surpassed the $1.657 billion total earned by Disney’s 2019 photorealistic CG-animated remakeThe 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-livedand another animated movie would dethrone it before long. The roster of major animated movies set to debut throughout 2025 and 2026 already includes theupcomingShrek 5,Zootopia 2,Toy Story 5, andIce Age 6, all of which are sequels that are part of franchises which contain smash hit animated titles. In fact, theShrekmovies have collectively grossed $4 billion. However, the success of 2025’sNe Zha 2meant that the record lasted even more briefly than it originally seemed.
Inside Out 2’s Box Office Numbers: Total, Worldwide, Domestic, Opening & Records
Pixar’s Inside Out 2 has become 2024’s highest-grossing movie. Suffice it to say, it made so much money while also breaking few box office records.
Ne Zha 2 Is A Chinese Animated Movie - What It’s About
It Is Based On A Centuries-Old Fantasy Epic
Ne Zha 2may be relatively unknown to English-speaking audiences, but the2025 animated movieisthe sequel to the Chinese animated movieNe Zha, which debuted in 2019. Both are based onInvestiture of the Godsby 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 titular 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.
BothNe Zhaand its sequel are Mandarin-language movies.
Much of the cast and crew that worked on the originalNe Zhahas 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 alsofeatures 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 Zhaopened in theaters in China on August 23, 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 toan opening weekend of roughly $151 million USD(which is more thanWicked,Moana 2, orDune: Part Twoearned in their domestic debuts). It became the first movie of the year to pass the 1 billion yuan milestone, then spent the remainder of its first week beating 2021’sDetective Chinatown 3as 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 2continued its rapid climb up the box office chart by earning $1.4 billion in China as of February 14 (perCNN) and breaking the record for the highest-grossing movie in a single region. That record was previously held by 2015’sStar Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens, which grossed $936.7 million at the domestic box office. Off the back of this massive gross, it then quickly became the highest-grossing animated movie of all time,surpassingInside Out 2by hitting a worldwide total of $1.704 billionas of the time of writing.
$1.704 billion
$1.699 billion
$1.657 billion
$1.450 billion
$1.362 billion
$1.290 billion
$1.243 billion
$1.159 billion
$1.073 billion
Toy Story 3(2010)
$1.067 billion
This means thatInside Out 2only 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 fellowbillion-dollar Disney movieThe Lion Kingheld the record before being dethroned. However, one factor that helped it retain that title 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 forNe Zha 2is 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 Zhaearned 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 surpassed that 5.4 billion yuan milestone in China alone by the end of its eighth day in theaters.
The originalNe Zhais now the fifth highest-grossing movie of all time in mainland China, withNe Zha 2topping the chart at No. 1, having more than doubled the gross of 2021’sThe Battle at Lake Changjin, which is now at No. 2.
Ne Zha 2sees the franchise growing at a similar rate to thePixar moviethat it dethroned. The originalInside Outonly earned $858.3 million by the end of its theatrical run, meaning thatInside Out 2earned 1.98 times its worldwide gross, almost exactly doubling its total. At the time of writing,Ne Zha 2has done even better, more than doubling its predecessor by earning 2.29 times whatNe Zhagrossed 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
AlthoughNe Zha 2has 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 alsocurrently 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.
