Ever wonder which animated films have raked in the most cash worldwide? According to a new Deadline ranking, the all-time chart just got a seismic shake-up: Chinese animated feature Ne Zha 2 now sits at the very top, surpassing Pixar's Inside Out 2 with a reported global gross of roughly $1.698 billion. Meanwhile, Disney's Zootopia 2 blasted past the billion-dollar mark in just 17 days, making it the fastest animated film — and the fastest PG-rated release — to ever hit that threshold. For anyone who still thinks Hollywood has an unbreakable grip on the genre, the scoreboard is telling a very different story.
Disney's Billion-Dollar Club Keeps Growing
I've been covering animation long enough to remember when a $1 billion animated film felt like a once-in-a-decade miracle. Now? Walt Disney Animation Studios claims five of them since 2013: Frozen, Frozen 2, Moana 2, Zootopia, and the freshly minted Zootopia 2. That's a staggering run, and the back-to-back billion-dollar wins of Moana 2 and Zootopia 2 confirm the studio's sequels strategy is printing money. Deadline notes that Inside Out 2 alone hauled in around $1.69 billion after its June debut last year, while Frozen 2 sits at roughly $1.462 billion. With four of the top five and nine of the top 12 highest-grossing animated films in history, Disney's dominance in this space remains overwhelming — even if they no longer own the top spot outright.
The New King: Ne Zha 2 and the Rise of Chinese Animation
Here's the part that should make every animation fan sit up: the single highest-grossing animated movie on the planet is no longer a Pixar or Disney title. Ne Zha 2, directed by Yang Yu (also known as Jiaozi), has overtaken Inside Out 2 to claim the global crown. That a Chinese-produced feature — rooted in mythological IP unfamiliar to most Western audiences — could climb to the peak of the worldwide box office is remarkable. It signals that the audience for animated storytelling is more global and more fragmented than the old "Disney vs. DreamWorks" binary ever suggested. And with other Chinese animated titles generating buzz, this feels less like an anomaly and more like a trend taking shape.
What This Means for the Animation Landscape
If you're tracking the state of animation as an industry, these numbers tell you two things at once. First, legacy franchises still deliver: Zootopia 2 sprinting to $1 billion in under three weeks proves that audiences will show up for characters and worlds they already love. Second, new players are arriving with serious commercial firepower. The Super Mario Bros. Movie sits at fourth all-time with $1.3 billion, a Nintendo-adjacent property that proved IP from outside Hollywood can dominate. And now Ne Zha 2 at number one. The gatekeepers are changing.
What I'd keep watching: how quickly Zootopia 2's final global tally climbs, whether any upcoming release can challenge Ne Zha 2's record, and whether Western studios start paying even more attention to what's resonating in the Chinese market. The billion-dollar animated club used to feel exclusive. Now it has more than 15 members — and the ceiling just keeps rising.