By Ben Fritz

Walt Disney Animation Studios has been partying a lot since "Zootopia 2" opened in November.

Artists and executives celebrated with Champagne toasts when their sequel crossed $1 billion at the global box office, when it became their biggest movie ever, and when it surpassed Pixar's "Inside Out 2" to become the highest grossing American animated film of all time, with $1.74 billion so far.

Many in Hollywood predicted Disney would have the top-grossing movie of 2025, but they didn't think it would be a cartoon about a city of talking animals. They figured it would be "Avatar: Fire and Ash," a follow-up to the No. 1 and No. 3 movies of all time at the global box office.

"Zootopia 2" surpassed the more expensive James Cameron-directed sequel thanks largely to China, where it has grossed $624.6 million through Sunday. That is nearly as much as every other Hollywood movie released there in 2025 combined, according to Comscore.

Once a reliably lucrative box office market, China has become a dead zone for many Hollywood films popular in the rest of the world. "Wicked: For Good" grossed less than $1 million there, "The Fantastic Four: First Steps" earned $5.6 million, and "A Minecraft Movie" made only $29.2 million.

Chinese audiences are increasingly interested in locally made movies such as last year's animated megahit "Ne Zha 2," which grossed $2.2 billion in its home country.

"Avatar: Fire and Ash" has made $159.9 million in China -- the second-highest total for any 2025 Hollywood release. But as in most of the world, that is below what 2022's "Avatar: The Way of Water" and 2009's "Avatar" grossed. The third entry in the science-fiction franchise is on track to finish its box office run with $1.5 billion to $1.6 billion in global ticket sales, compared with $2.33 billion for "The Way of Water" and $2.92 billion for the first "Avatar."

Some moviegoers in China and the U.S. have said the new "Avatar" movie didn't have a different enough story or a big enough leap forward in visual effects to generate the same excitement as the last two entries.

In contrast, Chinese audiences were pumped for the sequel to 2016's "Zootopia," which was previously the highest grossing American animated film in the country, at $236.1 million. Disney opened a Zootopia-themed land in Shanghai Disneyland in 2023 and has been promoting the franchise in China since that year with public events, partnerships with local companies including Luckin Coffee, and animated shorts released online.

The Chinese government in September approved Disney opening the movie in the same week as the U.S. That gave the studio two months to officially advertise "Zootopia 2," compared with the few weeks most foreign movies get.

When Disney's top film executive, Alan Bergman, traveled to the movie's premiere at Shanghai Disneyland in November and met with his local team, he told them he thought the sequel could significantly outperform the original, despite the recent weakness of the China market. "They thought I was a little crazy," he recalled.

The success of "Zootopia 2" is the latest sign that Walt Disney Animation Studios, which for years was overshadowed by corporate sibling Pixar, has become equally valuable to the parent company. The unit that launched with 1937's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" has had five movies gross more than $1 billion since 2013, including two Frozens, two Zootopias, and last year's "Moana 2."

Li Yanlu, who manages a theater in the Chinese city of Jinan, said "Zootopia 2" has benefited from being a family-friendly film with beloved characters that has faced little serious competition in the past two months. "The overall market was really weak," he said. "'Zootopia' has been in theaters two months, yet it's still one of the main movies propping up our box office."

The sequel has performed particularly well in smaller cities including Jinan, demonstrating just how deeply it has penetrated Chinese culture. "Zootopia 2" earned 42% of its China box office from what the country classifies as tier-3 and tier-4 cities through Jan. 19, compared with 32% for "Avatar: Fire and Ash," according to box office data firm Maoyan.

The movie recently got a second 30-day extension from China Film, a state-backed company that controls whether and for how long imported movies can play there.

Hollywood studios receive 25% of the box office in China, compared with 50% or more in the U.S. and most other foreign countries.

Still, "Zootopia 2" will be significantly more profitable for Disney than "Fire and Ash." It cost close to $200 million to produce, compared with $400 million-plus for the "Avatar" sequel.

--Grace Zhu and Zhao Yueling contributed to this article from China.

Write to Ben Fritz at ben.fritz@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 25, 2026 15:46 ET (20:46 GMT)

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