Just over a month into its theatrical run, Ne Zha 2 has already broken several big-name box office records.
The Chinese animated adventure movie has quickly become one of the biggest entertainment stories of 2025, yet most moviegoers Stateside have probably never heard of it.
Released over the Lunar New Year at the end of January, the big-screen epic is loosely based on the Chinese novel Investiture of the Gods, following a young boy spirit as master Taiyi Zhenren attempts to reconstruct their bodies.
Every Ne Zha 2 Box Office Record
The Chinese blockbuster Ne Zha 2 is now one of the biggest movies of all time, smashing box office records at home and abroad.
The Chinese animated sequel was released in theaters in its home territory on January 29 and has since raked in over $2 billion at the global box office. That total should continue to climb as well, with no streaming release having yet been announced for the film (read more about when Ne Zha 2 will start streaming here).
Below is a full list of box office records Ne Zha 2 has broken so far:
Highest-Grossing Animated Movie of All Time Worldwide
Mere months after Inside Out 2 smashed the record for the biggest animated movie of all time globally, Ne Zha 2 came in and leapfrogged Pixar's emotion-based smash hit.
Ne Zha's $2 billion (and climbing) box office haul is more than $300 million more than Inside Out 2's impressive $1.69 billion mark set in 2024. What is more impressive is that the Chinese language film did so without much help domestically.
More than $700 million of Inside Out 2's return came from moviegoers stateside. Ne Zha 2's impression on U.S. audiences has been fairly minimal to this point.
This marks the second time in less than a year that this record has been broken, which is surprising because the record-holder before that (Frozen 2) had stood for nearly half a decade before being eclipsed.
First Animated Movie To Cross $2 Billion at the Global Box Office
Ne Zha 2 not only stands as the biggest animated movie of all time, but the movie also marks the first time an animated feature has surpassed that vaunted $2 billion mark at the global box office.
Including Ne Zha 2, only seven movies have ever reached $2 billion, with the last being Avatar: The Way of Water in 2022. The animated sequel now sits as the seventh biggest movie of all time, with Avengers: Infinity War and Star Wars: The Force Awakens next in its sights.
Having been in theaters for over a month, it seems unlikely the film will climb any higher than the number-five spot, needing roughly $50 million more to pass Infinity War and $70 million for Force Awakens.
Fastest Animated Movie To Reach $1 Billion Ever
It has not just been about how much money Ne Zha 2 has amassed, either, but how quickly it did so. It is the fastest animated movie to reach $1 billion and the second quickest overall to hit $2 billion behind only Avengers: Endgame.
The movie managed to eclipse the last record holder, Inside Out 2, on February 9, earning over $1.7 billion worldwide in an utterly impressive 11 days. This was a mark that took Inside Out 2 19 days to hit.
This was largely thanks to another mark set by the animated epic, as it became the first movie ever to make more than $100 million on five separate single days.
In China, the movie's momentum to break this record immediately became apparent as it was the first film to break 1.1 billion yuan during the Lunar New Year, going on to become the fastest to ever cross the 4 billion yuan mark after only six days on screen.
First Movie to Ever Gross $1 Billion in a Single Market or Country
Ne Zha 2 also has the honor of being the first film ever to gross over $1 billion in a single market or territory.
In fact, more than $1.9 billion of the movie's $2 billion total has come from its home territory, accounting for more than 98% of its worldwide box office haul (via Endata).
The last time a movie got close to this particular mark was in 2015 with Star Wars: The Force Awakens. That film, at the time, set the standard for the highest single-territory box office haul, earning just over $936 million in North America during its run in theaters.
First International Movie To Reach Over $2 Billion
Ne Zha 2 not only is the biggest animated movie of all time, but it is now the biggest foreign film ever, being the first to cross $2 billion.
It has more than doubled the total of the next highest non-English movie on the list, another Chinese movie, The Battle at Lake Changjin. That 2021 war drama performed admirably by earning $913 million at the global box office.
China now occupies the top nine spots on the highest-grossing foreign films of all time list and 18 of the top 20.
Highest-Grossing Chinese Movie of All Time
Because Ne Zha 2 is the first international movie ever to make $2 billion, it would make sense that it also is the biggest movie of all time at Chinese cinemas.
However, this list also includes American movies that have made their way over to mainland China and have proven massively successful in Chinese theaters.
As of writing, the film has earned over 14 billion yuan, which is significant because the next closest film behind it, The Battle at Lake Changjin, has sat atop the list since 2021 after making just about a third of that 5.7 billion yuan.
The list behind Ne Zha 2 remains very crowded, with spots two to 10 being separated by 1.7 billion yuan (a mark Ne Zha 2 has managed to make in just a couple of days several times over in its run in theaters so far).
For comparison, the biggest movie of all time globally, Avengers: Endgame, only managed to make 4.2 billion yuan and was considered a massive success in the territory.
Ne Zha 2 is now playing in theaters worldwide.
