An unexpected film is apparently out of nowhere to write history at the box office. “Apparently” does a whole series of work there because the animated sequel “Ne ZHA 2” for film fans living in China has become a cultural film event like no other. Not only in China, mind you, but in some ways greater than any other film in history. Yes, really.
At the weekend, the blockbuster of director Yu Yang added “Ne Zha 2” 250.6 million US dollars To his already amazing total number, which is increased to 1.08 billion US dollars on Monday morning. Remember that the film was only released on January 29, which means that it did all of this in about two weeks. It has become the first film that has ever earned more than 1 billion US dollars in a single country, and passed “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” (936.6 million US dollars) to become the biggest film ever on an internal market.
“Ne ZHA 2” made headlines with its blockbuster opening over the New Year of the MoonLift the Chinese box office to heights that have not been seen for years. Other hits such as “Detective Chinatown 1900” and “Creation of the Gods II: Demon Force” have also led to record -breaking greetings in the country, but it is this animated sequel, which was highly above the rest. At this speed there is no cash record in China that the film will not break. The only question now is how high it can fly.
Ne ZHA 2 found the entrance to the record books
Before the pandemic, China was lucky with locals like “Wolf Warrior 2” (870 million US dollars) And “The Wandering Earth” (699 million US dollars). The original “ne ZHA” (742 million US dollars) is also on this list. What makes it so unique is that the vast majority of this money comes from China and China alone. “Wolf Warrior 2”, for example, earned only 2.7 million US dollars in the United States, which was also the trend after the pandemic, as films such as “The Battle at Lake Changjin” (902 million US dollars) continued to smash the records .
Here the things with “ne zha 2.” interesting. For the current letter just two weeks after the start of the run, It has already exceeded the lifelong total of “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” (1.077 billion US dollars). One of the 40 biggest films of all time to become global. It is as good as insured to not say goodbye to other Hollywood hits such as “Top Gun: Maverick” (1.49 billion US dollars) and “Barbie” (1.44 billion US dollars) in a few days. It will be one of the biggest films of all time, although most people in the world will not see it. There is only one country that drives madness.
At this speed we watch a film that can reach the 2 billion US dollars in China alone. It will almost certainly adopt the “The Lion King” from 2019 (1.66 billion US dollars) to be the only Chinese film that cracked the top ten ever. When it reaches the 2 billion dollars, it will only be the seventh film that somewhere between “Avengers: Infinity War” (2 billion US James Cameron’s “Avatar” (2.9 billion US dollars) in the all -time card.
What is happening with this film is nothing shy before remarkable. The most remarkable of all? It will probably have a minimal presence on screens elsewhere in the world. It is a single market that we have never seen before, one that will probably encourage China to continue to prioritize his films instead of relying on Hollywood for blockbusters.
I talked about these and more cash messages in today’s episode of the /Film Daily Podcast, which you can hear below:
“Ne ZHA 2” opened in the USA on February 14, 2025.
