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Ne Zha 2: How an $80 million Chinese film made $2 billion at box office to beat Star Wars, now eyeing Titanic and Avatar
Ne Zha 2 has earned over $2.085 billion worldwide, including just over $2 billion in just China. The animated film is now the 5th highest-grosser ever.
Ne Zha 2 is the most successful film of the year. What has confounded trade pundits is that the film has not come from any of the Hollywood stables but from China. The low-budget Chinese animated feature has stormed past hurdles at the box office to become the fifth-highest-grossing film of all-time, beating some Hollywood heavyweights in the process. (Also read: How an $80-million 'non-Hollywood film' beat Disney, Pixar to become highest-grossing animated film, minted $1.9 billion)
Ne Zha 2 beats Star Wars: The Force Awakens
This week, Ne Zha 2 surpassed the worldwide collection of Star Wars: The Force Awakens to become the fifth highest-grossing movie ever, reported Deadline.
According to Maoyan, the Ne Zha 2 total in China through Sunday is a little over RMB 14.86B. Adding grosses in excess of $31 million from markets outside China, the global total rises to more than $2.08 billion.
That places the animated sequel just above Star Wars: The Force Awakens ($2.07 billion) on the all-time global chart. This record came after it became the highest-grossing animated movie, overtaking Inside Out 2 in global charts.
How far can Ne Zha 2 go
Ne Zha 2 is now behind only four films—the two Avatars, Avengers: Endgame, and Titanic. It has already surpassed blockbusters such as Avengers: Infinity War ($2.04 billion), Spider-Man: No Way Home ($1.92 billion), and Jurassic World ($1.67 billion).
In China alone, Maoyan is projecting that NZ2 will finish at RMB 15.2B ($2.1 billion). Outside China, its global rollout continues in Indonesia on March 21 while several European releases are ahead as well as Japan. This means the film has enough legs to reach the $2.25 billion mark of Titanic and potentially even the $2.32 billion worldwide total of Avatar: The Way of Water. If Ne Zha 2 surpasses these two, it will become the third-highest-grossing film ever.
The top two, however, may be out of its reach. Avatar is the highest-grossing film of all time with a worldwide gross of $2.92 billion while Avengers: Endgame is at number 2 with a final haul of $2.79 billion.
About Ne Zha 2
The film serves as the direct sequel to 2019's Ne Zha and the third film in Enlight Pictures' Fengshen Universe, after 2020's Jiang Ziya.
Based on the Chinese novel Fengshen Yanyi (Investiture Of The Gods), the story follows a demon child raised by humans who forms an uneasy alliance with the dragon prince, Ao Bing, in an epic battle to protect their clans.
In the aftermath, with their bodies teetering on the edge of destruction, Ne Zha embarks on a quest to obtain an elixir to restore Ao Bing's body, uncovering a dangerous conspiracy in the process.
(With ANI inputs)
