In Disney’s “Zootopia 2,” detectives Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde follow the winding trail of a mysterious reptile that is turning the mammalian metropolis of Zootopia upside down.
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walt disney company became the second billion-dollar movie of 2025 with the help of a determined rabbit and a mischievous fox.
The company estimates that “Zootopia 2” is on track to surpass $1 billion in worldwide box office receipts on Friday, joining the live-action remake of “Lilo & Stitch” as the only Hollywood films to surpass the benchmark this year. Heading into the weekend, the film had grossed $232.7 million in the domestic market and $753.4 million in international markets.
“This milestone means the world to us because, above all, it means that audiences from around the world and from all walks of life will come to theaters for the common experience of seeing this movie together on the big screen, and it’s a Zootopia dream come true,” Jared Bush, chief creative officer at Walt Disney Animation Studios, said in a statement Friday.
The only other film to cross the $1 billion mark this year is China’s “Ne Zha 2,” which has raked in $2.2 billion since its January release, according to ComScore data.
“The evolution of global market trends in recent years has made reaching $1 billion a bit of a novelty again,” Sean Robbins, director of analytics at Fandango and founder of Box Office Theory, told CNBC.
He also noted the importance of the film’s “tremendous success in China.” So far, nearly $450 million of Zootopia 2’s worldwide box office revenue has come from the region, a huge number considering China has reduced the number of American films it allows to play in its theaters and is threatening to restrict them further with higher tariffs.
“Zootopia 2” has the highest-ever animation opening for a non-local title in China, and broke the record for the highest-grossing non-local animated film in history within five days of its release in the country, Disney reported.
The film’s multibillion-dollar box office receipts also highlight changes in the domestic theatrical market. PG-rated family films surpassed PG-13 and R-rated films at the box office in 2025. So far, PG movies released this year have grossed $2.7 billion in the U.S. and Canada, PG-13 movies have raked in $2.5 billion, and R-rated movies have raked in $2.4 billion.
The change began in 2024, the first time a PG-rated film sold more tickets than any other rated film in the country. According to Comscore data, PG-13 movies have dominated the field for decades.
“For PG-rated movies, kids are often the ones making the decisions about whether or not they hit multiplexes, and their influence is directly reflected in the category’s highest numbers in years,” said Paul Dergarabedian, head of marketplace trends at ComScore. “Equally impressive, most of the PG movie tickets sold are in the lower price range for children, so achieving such a major box office milestone is even more impressive.”
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal, which owns Fandango and CNBC. With Comcast’s planned spinoff of Versant, Versant will become the new parent company for Fandango and CNBC.
