Disney’s “Zootopia 2” follows detectives Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde who find themselves on the winding trail of a mysterious reptile that turns the mammal metropolis of Zootopia upside down.
Disney
The Walt Disney Company made its second billion-dollar film in 2025 with the help of a determined rabbit and a mischievous fox.
“Zootopia 2” is expected to top $1 billion at the global box office on Friday, according to company estimates, joining the live-action remake of “Lilo & Stitch” as the only Hollywood-made film to surpass the mark this year. Heading into the weekend, the film had grossed $232.7 million domestically and $753.4 million in international markets.
“This milestone means a lot to us, because more than anything, it means that audiences are coming to the theater for a shared experience of watching this film on the big screen, everyone together, from all walks of life around the world – and it’s a Zootopia dream come true,” Jared Bush, chief creative officer at Walt Disney Animation Studios, wrote in a statement Friday.
The only other film to cross the billion-dollar threshold this year is China’s “Ne Zha 2,” which has raked in $2.2 billion since its January release, according to Comscore data.
“As global market trends have changed in recent years, hitting $1 billion has become a bit more of a novelty again,” Shawn Robbins, director of analytics at Fandango and founder of Box Office Theory, told CNBC.
He also highlighted the importance of the film’s “staggering success in China.” So far, nearly $450 million of “Zootopia 2″‘s worldwide revenue has come from the region – a huge figure considering that China has reduced the number of American films it allows to be shown in its theaters and has threatened to restrict even more due to escalating tariffs.
“Zootopia 2” had the biggest animated opening ever for a non-local title in China and broke the record for the highest-grossing non-local animated film of all time within 5 days of its release in the country, Disney reported.
The film’s $1 billion haul also highlights a transition in the domestic film market. PG-rated family films have outperformed PG-13 and R-rated films at the box office in 2025. So far, PG-rated films released this year have generated $2.7 billion in the United States and Canada, while PG-13 films have totaled $2.5 billion and R-rated films have collected $2.4 billion.
This shift began in 2024, when PG-rated films sold more tickets nationally than any other rated film for the first time ever. Movies rated PG-13 have dominated the industry for decades, according to Comscore data.
“In the case of PG-rated films, it’s often young people who decide whether or not to move to the multiplex, and their influence can be seen directly in the category’s numbers which have reached unprecedented heights over the past two years,” said Paul Dergarabedian, head of market trends at Comscore. “What’s equally impressive is that most PG movie tickets sold are at a lower, kid-friendly price and so reaching these huge box office milestones is made even more impressive.”
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of Fandango and NBCUniversal, which owns CNBC. Versant would become the new parent company of Fandango and CNBC in Comcast’s planned spinoff of Versant.