Disney’s ‘Zootopia 2’ hits $1 billion global box office

The Walt Disney Co. tallied its second billion-dollar film of 2025 with the help of a determined bunny and mischievous fox.

“Zootopia 2” is set 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 films to cross the benchmark this year. Heading into the weekend, the film had tallied $232.7 million domestically and $753.4 million from international markets.

“This milestone means the world to us, because more than anything, it means audiences are coming to theaters for a shared experience of watching this movie on the big screen, everyone together, from all walks of life around the world — and that is 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 collected $2.2 billion since its release in January, according to data from Comscore.

“With the evolution of global market trends in recent years, reaching $1 billion has become a little more of a novelty again,” Shawn Robbins, director of analytics at Fandango and founder of Box Office Theory, told CNBC.

He also noted the importance of the film’s “staggering success in China.” Nearly $450 million of the global haul for “Zootopia 2” has come from the region so far — a massive figure considering China has decreased the number of American films it permits to play in its theaters and has threatened to restrict even more because of escalated tariffs.

“Zootopia 2” had the highest animated opening of all time for a non-local title in China and broke the record for highest-grossing non-local animated film of all time within five days of its release in the country, Disney reported.

The film’s billion-dollar haul also highlights a transition in the domestic theatrical marketplace. PG-rated family films have outperformed PG-13 and R-rated films at the box office in 2025. So far, PG films released this year have generated $2.7 billion in the U.S. and Canada, while PG-13 films have tallied $2.5 billion and R-rated films have collected $2.4 billion.

This shift started in 2024, when PG-rated films sold more tickets domestically than any other rated film for the first time ever. PG-13 films had dominated the space for decades, according to data from Comscore.

“With PG-rated films, it is often the kids who make the decision as to whether to hit the multiplex, and their influence can be seen directly in the numbers for the category that have hit all-time highs over the past couple of years,” said Paul Dergarabedian, head of marketplace trends at Comscore. “Equally impressive is that most PG movie tickets sold are at a child-friendly lower price point and therefore 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 upon Comcast’s planned spinoff of Versant.