Record-breaking Ne Zha 2 is the biggest movie in the world right now

The biggest movie in the world right now is not the fourth Captain America movie, the new Bridget Jones entry, or an Oscar frontrunner. It’s not even a Hollywood release.

It’s Ne Zha 2, a Chinese cartoon, which has just broken Inside Out 2’s record to become the highest ever grossing animated feature.

The film is currently sitting at $US1.72 billion at the global box office. Yes, that’s billion with a B.

It is now the eighth highest grossing movie of all time, just behind Spider-Man: No Way Home.

Even in Australia, the Mandarin-language Ne Zha 2 is doing good business. Last week, it premiered to $3.11 million and ranked third on local charts, behind Captain America: Brave New World’s $6.23m and Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy’s $5.74m.

The fourth ranked film, horror movie Heart Eyes which was also in its first week of release, took less than a third of Ne Zha 2’s Australian box office.

On Friday, at Sydney’s CBD cinemas, Event George Street, there are 11 sessions for Ne Zha 2, the same number as Bridget Jones 4. Of the eight cinemas within a 5km radius of Sydney’s city centre, where there is a concentrated Chinese diaspora population, all but two are showing Ne Zha 2.

The film has only just opened in international markets, so of its $US1.72b grosses, only $US10m has been made outside of China. But inside the Middle Kingdom, the enthusiasm for the movie has been bonkers, which was timed with the Lunar New Year holiday period starting January 29.

Ne Zha 2’s success has, in part, been fuelled by nationalistic fever, with social media users in China declaring their patriotism by supporting the film with multiple trips to the cinema, according to the BBC.

Criticism of the film has been shouted down by other social media users who pitched Ne Zha 2 as a flank in the battle against American culture.

It is the most money one movie has ever made inside a single market (besting Star Wars: The Force Awakens).

Ne Zha 2 has been projected to end its run around the $US2b mark. It’s hard to see any Hollywood release surpassing that this year except for maybe the third Avatar film which is due for release in December.

A handful of years ago, Hollywood studios were chasing the large Chinese moviegoing audience by striking financing deals with Chinese companies, kowtowing to local censorship rules and casting well-known Chinese celebrities in big franchises such as Yang Ying (also known as Angelababy) in Independence Day: Resurgence.

At the time, China was set to surpass North America (encompassing the US and Canada) as the world’s most lucrative box office. It did so in 2020 but under covid conditions and North America reclaimed the crown in 2022.

During that time, it had also become harder for Hollywood films to secure releases in China which led to the American industry de-prioritising the market as Chinese audiences flocked to its own films.

The top 10 highest grossing Chinese movies have all been released since 2017. Following Ne Zha 2 is The Battle at Lake Changjin with $US913m, Wolf Warrior 2 with $US870m, Hi, Mom with $814m and the first Ne Zha film in $US742m.

Ne Zha 2 is drawn from Chinese mythology and follows the adventures of a child demon hunter.