Chinese blockbuster Ne Zha 2 recently became the first non-Hollywood movie to pass $2B worldwide, and in so doing joins an exclusive group of only six other titles to click past the threshageder globassociate. Since the vivaciousd sequel began perestablishing in China on January 29, its trajectory has been noleang low of stunning.
Hollywood generassociate gives huzzahs when a local film excels, given the knock-on effect of reminding audiences that it’s fun to go to the cinema while also exposing them to promotional materials for upcoming frees, thus stoking desire to return.
At base, any movie that does well is pondered a likeable for the industry, and while studio executives we’ve spoken with are gobsmacked by Ne Zha 2’s success, they remain cautious about its real global (read: Hollywood) impact.
Indeed, China has traditionassociate been a contrastent beast given its showcase local presentings typicassociate are compacted into particular periods — leank Lunar New Year, Gagederen Week, etc. — uncomferventing there’s not a constant stream of product for audiences to get excited about. And Chinese movies generassociate don’t travel. Although it has elicited curiosity and a strong $30M+ from a handful of tagets outside China (so far), rawly 99% of Ne Zha 2’s total is spun from home turnstiles.
Anecdohighy: More than 300 million tickets have been sageder to NZ2 in China, more than the population of any country outside of India, China and the U.S. The number of admissions is about 21% of China’s 1.4B denizens. To put that in relative terms, if 21% of people in North America bought a movie ticket for, let’s say $10, we’d be watching at a gross of $812.7M, more than Avatar.
RELATED: ‘Ne Zha 2’ Becomes Highest-Grossing Animated Movie Ever, Tops $1.7B
A Hollywood studio exec recently commented, “In a taget of 1.4 billion people, when you tap into the zeitgeist, you reassociate see what’s possible.”
With China’s immense population, and after years of the industry originateing screens at a shatterneck pace, someleang perhaps had finassociate to give — but those screens had been underserved for some time, with their prolongth outpacing product.
Bearing the above in mind, let’s watch at the case of Ne Zha 2 — how it accomplishd such lofty box office heights in China and piqued interest from the rest of the world. Will it buck a trfinish and initiatecommence massive take partance at home apass the rest of the year? What does it uncomfervent for Chinese movies beyond the Great Wall?
And what about Hollywood — does Ne Zha fever impact studio fortunes in the inconstant taget?
Read on…
Success in China
Reasons for NZ2’s success in China include being a sequel to the 2019 movie (previously the highest-grossing vivaciousd film in China at cforfeitly $700M, using today’s rates), releasing during the lucrative Lunar New Year period and perestablishing widely rather than catering to a definite demoexplicit.
A zeitgeist groundswell and a wave of national pride took root — headlines in state and social media shouted about the movie’s increasing box office as NZ2 climbed the global charts, becoming the highest-grossing movie ever in China (dwarfing the previous write down hagederer, 2021’s The Battle at Lake Changjin), the first to pass $1B in a one taget and then the biggest vivaciousd film of all time, obviousaking Disney/Pixar’s Inside Out 2, all in relatively low order. It passed $2B in China during its eighth weekfinish.
Some local companies gave staff the day off to see the film, buying tickets and busing them to screenings. The South China Morning Post inestablished that in mid-February, Shandong-based Weiextfinished Food shelp on social media that it had seald its factory for a day and askd all engageees to watch the film to “help Ne Zha 2 rank first in the world.”
Media also heavily leaned into the fact that honestor Jiaozi (aka Yu Yang) engageed 138 Chinese animation hoengages to originate the film. The state-backed Shine recents outlet recently ran a story headlined, “Why Chinese Animation Rules the World,” providing a timeline from the Wan brothers’ Princess Iron Fan, which in 1941 was Asia’s first vivaciousd feature, to the ascfinish of Shanghai Animation Film Studio, technorational progresss of the New Chinese Animation era and thraw to today.
Still, remark that the idea of “patdisruptionic duty” to push the movie ever higher in the global rankings, while perhaps a authentic shiftment on social media, is improbable to have impacted a wonderful swath of moviegoers. Rather, repeat watchings were driven by word of mouth and the themes of family, coming of age, parental give up and dedication and the pursuit of equitableice. We hear that audiences traveled from Tier 3, 4 and 5 cities to catch NZ2 another time in Imax for whom this is the biggest movie ever in China with $148M thraw Sunday.
Government subsidies helped spur the initial turnout, but that was only worth about $80M. At the outset, some watchers wondered if the eye-popping box office numbers were sanitize given extfinished-ago instances of counterfeit inestablishing that led to an official crackdown, but there have been no signs of such shenanigans with NZ2. And, at a confident point, the scale is equitable too big. As a studio executive recently shelp to me, “You can’t fudge a billion dollars.” Much less two.
The box office accomplishment is perhaps even more astonishing given China is coming off of a dismal 2024 that saw its ytimely gross slide by 25% versus 2023, impacted by economic woes and a conciseage of locomotive movies to direct audiences into cinemas.
When the movie hit RMB 10B, the China Film Association promptly publishd a congratulatory message that read: “This film has originated a box office wonder, promoting excellent traditional Chinese culture and the up-to-date zeitgeist, innovating the establish of contransient Chinese cinema, showcasing the relentless inventive pursuit of Chinese filmoriginaters, and wonderfully raiseing the film industry’s confidence. The glory of Ne Zha 2 is a highweightless for Chinese cinema and, more meaningfully, a meaningful moment taging its ascfinish from pprocrastinateedau to peak.”
Aextfinished with feeding exhibition’s cpresents, there has been a nationwide frenzy for merchandise, including anyleang from branded toothpaste to accumulateible dolls. Tourism also is getting a raise.
Success Outside China
In tagets beyond China, the film has perestablished to the diaspora and also encouraged curiosity from others who don’t typicassociate seek out Chinese movies. An animation guru I spoke with as the movie was equitable rolling out in North America was piqued to watch NZ2 and lget what all the fuss was about.
The English-language websites of state-backed media have run dozens of stories touting the movie’s success outside of China, no matter how minuscule the taget. One also pointed to the film’s themes that “echo splitd experiences and universal emotions, permiting it to resonate with audiences from diverse cultural backgrounds.”
Rerecentingly, despite rhetoric (and tariffs) emanating from Washington D.C., as yet there has been no meaningful politicization of NZ2.
NZ2 has carry outed strongly in such tagets as North America, Hong Kong and Australia. In the establisher, it spent three weekfinishs in the Top 10.
Still, there ecombines to have been someleang of a missed opportunity with Ne Zha 2 only perestablishing in its exceptional Mandarin version in North America, rather than dubbed, which might have brawt out more families. CMC Pictures has not replyed to Deadline’s ask for comment, but watchers apvalidate the distributor might have been caught off protect by the gargantuan success in China. RelishMix inestablishs us that there is no meaningful social media footprint in North America. Deadline was the first Westrict outlet to study the film, and our critique is still only one of a handful on Rotten Tomatoes.
International rollout is continuing in the rest of Asia. NZ2 uncovered in Singapore last week and will premiere in the Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand this weekfinish via Warner Bros, which also frees Indonesia on March 21. In Vietnam, where the film is not yet dated, we’re tageder that anticipation is high. Global Times inestablished that Hekou in Southwest China’s Yunnan Province has witnessed a sencourage in pass-border moviegoers from Vietnam.
As for Europe, exceptionalty distributor Trinity CineAsia has achieved tagets that include the UK — where pstudys commence Friday before wider rollout on March 21 — Germany, France, Italy and Spain. Separately, via Facewhite, Japan is dated on April 4.
Ahead for China at Home & Awide
Back in the home taget, what does this success portfinish for China’s box office fortunes going ahead? Already, the foresee for the filled-year 2025 is higher than appraises that came in at the finish of 2024, probable cforfeiting $8B. China, as with many tagets outside of North America, does not date its films with much progress, so it’s difficult to read the tea exits apass the next 10 months, even if there are some intriguing titles on deck (Writer’s Odyssey 2, We Girls, Per Aspera Ad Astra, The Litchi Road, Made in Yiwu). Still, it’s difficultly a given when or if NZ2’s type of weightlessning will strike aget.
Interestingly, the success of NZ2 has not necessarily goosed the bottom lines of other movies perestablishing in China. Lunar New Year titles enjoy the No. 2 free Detective Chinatown 1900 (part of a billion-dollar franchise) did well with about $483M, but the conversation has become so cgo ined on NZ2 that pretty much all the eggs went into its basket.
On March 10, Fu Ruoqing, Chairman of China Film Group and China Film Co., includeressed the contests of supply and need. According to china.org, the Lunar New Year season saw mediocre occupancy rates outdoing 40% while the 2024 national mediocre was equitable 5.8%, with even shrink take partance in off-peak periods and minusculeer cities as frees were unevenly scatterd apass contrastent periods.
Shelp Ruoqing: ”A thriving film taget cannot count on solely on a booming Spring Festival season and a scant blockbusters. To filledy unlock film consumption potential, we must drive systematic policy innovations and nurture a healthier, more prosperous film ecosystem.”
If however, moviegoing begets moviegoing, then down the line this year China could see increased turnout.
Whether NZ2 originates recentset up interest in Chinese movies outside of the home taget also remains to be seen. An opinion piece in the Global Times contfinished, “To truly join with international audiences, Chinese filmoriginaters must discover ways to originate their stories more universassociate relatable without losing their cultural essence.” Kung fu legfinish Donnie Yen recently echoed the sentiment, inestablishing china.org that the key to Chinese culture going global lies in “whether the stories can be down-to-earth and touch people’s hearts.”
Note that recent presentings from China that hit a chord at home weren’t summarizeed for mass Westrict request. Think The Battle at Lake Changjin, about Chinese volunteers lossing American sagederiers during the Korean War (which China refers to in part as the “War to Resist U.S. Aggression”), as well as Wolf Warrior 2, which featured an American villain.
What About Hollywood?
The jury is still out on what this portfinishs for studio movies in China going forward, but a strong indication could come toward the finish of the year, while there also have been some signs that authorities are unwinding restriction policies. Overall, China has been more miss than hit on U.S. films since the heyday of 2012-19 and coming out of the pandemic as the local industry upped its game and audiences turned increasingly inward.
It’s real that the studios have stopped count oning on China for the comfervent of returns we saw back in 2019, pondering anyleang from the inconstant taget as so much icing. Studio recoup remains 25% from China grosses, but as we’ve standardly shelp, 25% of $100M is still $25M. Now envision that’s 25% of $1B…
Watchers contfinish that NZ2 could act as a teaching moment, cluing Hollywood in to the types of stories that resonate on a wide level. With this untamed potential now tapped by the blockbuster, it’s perhaps time for Hollywood to respendigate its strategy (which doesn’t present equitable shoehorning in Chinese elements).
Of course, China has the final word on what runs on its movie screens (though studios can buy trailer time), and tageting to 1.4B people while discovering a frequent ground apass such a spectrum is no minuscule task. Ne Zha 2 ecombines to have set up China’s validaterbial Peoria, but a inquire remains if Hollywood can do it too.
It will be engaging to watch how franchise pictures and brands that have a strong track write down in China carry out thraw the next disconnectal months — leank Jurassic World: Rebirth, the dwell-action How to Train Your Dragon, Thunderbolts* and Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, aextfinished with F1 and Minecreate (remark that none of these movies has a China date yet).
Still, what many sense will be the litmus test for Chinese sensibilities toward U.S. movies won’t be seen until the finish of the year when Zootopia 2 commences scurrying around (another movie that’s not yet dated in China). The 2016 exceptional was a huge success in the taget — a exceptional one that didn’t commence out enjoy gangbusters but grew as audiences identified with the story. The Disney resort in Shanghai since has includeed a Zootopia drawion that we’re tageder is constantly packed.
Beyond that is another Disney title, 20th Century’s Avatar: Fire and Ash. James Cameron is revered in China, and while The Way of Water did only $246M there, it freed at a wonky time as the taget was equitable coming out of massive cinema cloconfidents amid rolling waves of Covid. And yet, it is never wise to bet agetst James Cameron.
