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It may be surprising to hear, but nearly a decade after it shattered box office records, “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” has been left in the dust. Indeed, Disney and Lucasfilm’s wildly successful, $2 billion revival of the “Star Wars” franchise has been overtaken at the box office by an unexpected sequel. Welcome to the top five highest-grossing movies of all time, “Ne Zha 2.”
One would be forgiven for not even knowing of “Ne Zha 2” but the Chinese animated blockbuster has been on a tear ever since it was released earlier this year. So much so that it has now amassed $2.08 billion worldwide — with almost all of that coming from China. That is enough to put it past “The Force Awakens,” which made $2.07 billion globally. That means the “Star Wars” film now falls to number six on the all-time charts, just ahead of “Avengers: Infinity War” ($2.05 billion).
“Ne Zha 2” had already topped “The Force Awakens” to become the biggest movie ever in a single country. Director J.J. Abrams Episode VII previously held that record with $936.6 million in North America. The animated sequel has now secured the record for a long time to come, with $2.06 billion of its total coming from Chinese ticket sales. To say that what the movie has accomplished is remarkable would be an understatement.
To that end, “The Force Awakens” was a true pop culture moment. “Star Wars” had been gone for nearly a decade and the release of a new film felt like the cinematic event of a generation. The movie’s success proved Disney’s purchase of Lucasfilm was a good one, even if what followed with film’s like “Solo” and “The Rise of Skywalker” was more uneven.
Ne Zha 2 has cemented its place in box office history
Enlight Pictures
The original “Ne Zha” was a gigantic hit in 2019, to be certain (it made $726 million). But the fact that its sequel came out of seemingly nowhere to topple box office records in 2025 has made lots of folks open their eyes. “Ne Zha” had previously topped “Inside Out 2” ($1.69 billion) to become the biggest animated movie ever. It’s also only the seventh movie in history to make at least $2 billion globally.
It now joins very good company in the top five all-time, trailing only “Titanic” ($2.26 billion), “Avatar: The Way of Water” ($2.32 billion), “Avengers: Endgame” ($2.79 billion), and “Avatar” ($2.92 billion). Whether or not James Cameron’s “Avatar: Fire and Ash” can overtake “Ne Zha 2” later this year to give the director four spots in the global top five remains to be seen, but it’s certainly possible.
“Ne Zha 2” is illustrative of the trend of China prioritizing its own movies, as opposed to Hollywood titles. That’s part of the reason why Hollywood studios can no longer depend on once-robust box office titles from China, which used to help quite a few movies out in the pre-pandemic era. But that was a long time ago, and Chinese filmmakers are delivering monster hits that audiences in the country want to see. The times are a changin’.
You can grab “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” on 4K, Blu-ray or DVD from Amazon.
