‘Zootopia 2’ Hops To Record-Breaking Start In China; Biggest Opening Day Ever For A U.S. Animated Movie
Refresh for latest…: Walt Disney Animation’s Zootopia 2 is defying the trends of the past year — and beyond — for Hollywood in China, nabbing the biggest opening day and highest single-day box office for a U.S. animated film ever in the market. With an RMB 240.2M ($34M) estimated opening Wednesday, this is also the biggest launch day for a studio movie since May 2021, and the 10th best for Hollywood of all time.
The Maoyan audience score is a fantastic 9.7, with the critical ranking on Douban at 8.7. Comparatively in Maoyan scores, Zootopia had a 9.5, Inside Out was 9.1 and Moana 2 was 9.0.
It’s early days, but at this pace, Zootopia 2 is poised to become the biggest studio movie in China of 2025 across just its first weekend.
Maoyan is already predicting an RMB 2.4B ($340M) full run on the Jared Bush and Byron Howard-directed movie in the market; its predecessor having done $236M at historical rates there.
While full Wednesday numbers will come later on Z2, we also already know that Korea is estimated to have debuted Judy and Nick’s latest adventure at No. 1 with $1.7M. This is the 2nd-highest studio opening day of 2025 (trailing only Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning), the 5th-highest opening day of the year overall, and the top animated Hollywood opening day of 2025. Z2 also registered the 2nd-biggest animated opening day of the year (behind Demon Slayer) and ranked 2nd all-time among Disney animation titles (behind Frozen 2).
Like China, social scores are outstanding, with Naver at 9.33 and CGV at 98%, which is in line with the first Zootopia, and well above Moana 2 and Inside Out 2.
In total, Z2 bows in 93% of the international box office landscape this weekend, beginning notably with France, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Netherlands and Philippines today, alongside China and Korea.
Thursday adds Australia, Brazil and Mexico among majors, followed by the UK, India and Spain on Friday. The only market not going this session is Japan which releases in December.
Heading into the weekend, the international box office projection for Z2 is in the $135M-$145M range.
As I noted earlier this week, the performance of Z2 in China will be keenly watched by the industry after quite a disappointing first 11 months in the market.
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