On the last weekend of August 2024, “Inside Out 2” surpassed the 2019 remake of “The Lion King” to become the highest grossing animated film of all time, landing just shy of $1.7 billion worldwide. Less than six months later, its reign has come to an unexpected end at the hands of “Ne Zha 2,” the biggest film hit in Chinese history.
In just three weeks, the animated sequel from director Jiao Zi and the studio Chengdu Coco Cartoon has outgrossed its Pixar counterpart almost entirely from audiences in China, turning out to the tune of more than 250 million tickets sold over the course of the Lunar New Year holidays.