{"id":320460,"date":"2025-12-01T11:42:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T11:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/320460\/"},"modified":"2025-12-01T11:42:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T11:42:08","slug":"zootopia-2-breaks-records-in-china-with-275-million-opening","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/320460\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Zootopia 2’ breaks records in China with $275 million opening"},"content":{"rendered":"

SHANGHAI \u2014 Disney\u2019s \u201cZootopia 2\u201d<\/a> became the highest-grossing animated foreign film ever in China<\/a>, despite generally muted interest in overseas movies in the country.<\/p>\n

As of Monday morning Beijing time, box office tracker Maoyan showed the local box office tally for \u201cZootopia 2\u201d reaching 1.95 billion yuan ($275.6 million) in its first six days of release.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is Disney\u2019s most important movie in China this year, for sure,\u201d said Ashley Dudarenok, founder of China digital consultancy Chozan, with its themes of personal resilience and societal harmony resonating with local audiences.<\/p>\n

Its runaway success in China \u2014 where \u201cZootopia 2\u201d sales accounted for around 95% of all movie ticket sales over its opening weekend \u2014 is particularly notable given the changing environment for foreign films in China over the nine years since the first \u201cZootopia\u201d film was released. The original \u201cZootopia\u201d also became China\u2019s most popular foreign animated film when it was released in 2016.<\/p>\n

Hollywood films were caught up earlier this year in the U.S.-China trade war. Beijing curbed the number of U.S. films that were allowed to be shown in China in retaliation for higher tariffs on Chinese goods \u2014 a move analysts said would have only a limited impact, given the waning influence of foreign films in China.<\/p>\n

Hollywood studios once looked to China, the world\u2019s second-largest film market, to help boost their box office performances. But domestic movies increasingly have outperformed Hollywood fare in China. Earlier this year, local animation \u201cNe Zha 2\u201d<\/a> eclipsed Pixar\u2019s \u201cInside Out 2\u201d to become the world\u2019s highest-grossing animated film of all time after raking in nearly $2 billion at the Chinese box office.<\/p>\n

Even so, Disney seemed confident that \u201cZootopia 2\u201d would find a significant audience in China, with Chief Executive Bob Iger traveling to Shanghai for a local premiere a fortnight ago. In addition, Disney partnered with China Eastern Airlines on a \u201cZootopia 2\u201d-themed plane.<\/p>\n

And the Shanghai Disneyland resort is home to the world\u2019s only \u201cZootopia\u201d-themed land, which opened in 2023 to capitalize on local affection for the original film.<\/p>\n

\u201cDisney is heavily reliant on huge blockbuster releases, which in turn become IP and monetize through experiences, merchandise and other areas,\u201d said PP Foresight analyst Paolo Pescatore, adding that in spite of geopolitical tensions and an uncertain macroeconomic environment, China remains a \u201cmassive and expanding market for its theme parks, movies and merchandise.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Chris Fenton, author of \u201cFeeding the Dragon: Inside the Trillion Dollar Dilemma Facing Hollywood, the NBA, and American Business,\u201d a potential downside of the success of \u201cZootopia 2\u201d could be the false hope it might give Hollywood studios that China could be rekindling a love affair with foreign films.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeijing doesn\u2019t view Hollywood as a solution to restrained consumer spending [in China], so I wouldn\u2019t read into this being a pivot on Beijing\u2019s part,\u201d he said. \u201cBeijing knows if Hollywood sees some continued promise in their market, filmmakers will continue to kowtow to Beijing\u2019s storytelling requirements.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SHANGHAI \u2014 Disney\u2019s \u201cZootopia 2\u201d became the highest-grossing animated foreign film ever in China, despite generally muted interest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":320461,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[64,63,134,344],"class_list":{"0":"post-320460","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-movies"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=320460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320460\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/320461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}