Disney’s smash-hit animated sequel Zootopia 2 got off to a stunning start in China over the holiday weekend, opening with an enormous $272 million five-day box office haul. It was the kind of powerful performance that once had Hollywood executives wildly bullish on the market potential of the world’s most populous nation, but which grew scarce over the past half-decade as Chinese filmgoers began to favor local fare over imported Western storytelling. Zootopia 2, however, appears to have delivered the goods, irresistibly, for movie fans of all ages in the country.
The film’s staggering launch ranks as the second-best opening ever for a U.S. film in China, behind only Avengers: Endgame with $330.5 million, the high watermark of the Marvel franchise. It has also already set nearly every record conceivable for a nonlocal animated release in the country, including the biggest opening, biggest single-day performance and biggest cumulative total.
As in the U.S., where the film is a critical and audience darling with a 91 percent fresh ranking on Rotten Tomatoes, Zootopia 2’s social scores in China are outstanding — 9.7 on Maoyan (ahead of Zootopia’s 9.5 score and Inside Out 2’s 9.1) and 8.6 on Douban.
Maoyan currently projects Zootopia 2 to earn well over half a billion dollars in China, with its cumulative forecast landing at RMB 4.2 billion (around $590 million). The second-biggest U.S. release in China so far this year was Universal’s Jurassic World: Rebirth, which topped out at RMB 567.2 million ($79 million).
Heading into the global release, Disney had very high hopes for Zootopia 2 in China. The first film became a runaway sensation in 2016, opening modestly to $22 million before building rapidly over subsequent weekends to become the biggest imported animated movie the market had ever seen, with a total of $236 million. Known as “Crazy Animal City” in China, the film resonated on various levels among young filmgoers in the country — particularly through the story of Judy Hopps, a young female rabbit who leaves her small town in the countryside to pursue her dreams in a teeming metropolis. On Douban, the original film has 2.3 million user reviews and an average score of 9.3 — one of the highest on the platform for an imported title.
Zootopia 2 director Jared Bush signing autographs at the film’s Shanghai Disneyland premiere.
In response to that enduring connection, Disney opened the world’s first Zootopia-themed land at the Shanghai Disney Resort in late 2023. It has proved one of the park’s most popular attractions, further sustaining the franchise’s appeal in the country. Disney held Zootopia 2’s global premiere at the Shanghai park on Nov. 18, flying in U.S. voice cast stars Ginnifer Goodwin and Ke Huy Quan, along with director Jared Bush and other cast members. The park was also awash with Chinese guests in Zootopia-themed costumes.
Disney has one more high-stakes title coming up in 2025 with major China potential: James Cameron’s Avatar: Fire and Ash. Like Zootopia, the Avatar franchise has deep emotional ties to the country. Among local millennials, few foreign titles are as stirringly nostalgic as the first Avatar, which opened in 2010 during the country’s high-growth era, topping out at $202.6 million — an astonishing sum at the time, when China was home to just 5,690 movie screens (today, there are more than 86,000). The sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water, earned a healthy $246 million there in 2022 — the film’s second-biggest territory total behind North America — but was significantly hampered by the draconian COVID restrictions China had in place at the time.
Amid ongoing policy and cultural headwinds in China, a second U.S. blockbuster win in the market would suggest that audience appetite remains robust — if in abeyance — for the best and biggest of select Hollywood event fare.