Zootopia 2 opens to $566 million, the fourth-biggest opening weekend of all time

Zootopia 2 has earned $566 billion at the box office in its opening weekend. The latest Disney blockbuster is breaking all kinds of records, and its huge start to life in theaters has earned it the distinction of having the fourth best opening weekend in movie history.

Projections for Zootopia 2's theatrical release predicted a big opening, but I'm not sure anyone really thought it would be this big. With $566 billion made in just three days, Zootopia's opening weekend is now the biggest ever for a non-MCU film.

Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame and Spider-Man: No Way Home make up the top three.

No animated film in history has had a bigger opening weekend than Zootopia 2

Nick and Joy look at each other awkwardly in Zootopia 2.

That means Zootopia 2 now holds the record for the biggest opening for an animated film ever. Not just Disney, but anything. Its opening weekend is bigger than Frozen 2, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, and every movie Pixar has ever made. Toy Story 4, Inside Out 2, The Incredibles 2. Name an animated movie, Zootopia 2 just had a bigger opening weekend than it did because it just had a bigger opening weekend than pretty much every movie ever made.

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If you call Zootopia 2 AI generated, be careful what you wish for

Whether you liked Zootopia 2 or not, it was still made by hundreds of talented artists.

As for where all that money is made, and how, let's be honest, a sequel to what was an okay Disney movie does so incredibly well, you'll have to look overseas. Zootopia 2 earned $156 million in the US over the weekend. Not bad at all, and a number most studios would bite your hand off for. However, this means that $400 million of the total ticket price was made elsewhere.

Zootopia 2 is a huge hit in China

It is fans who will see Zootopia 2 in China that will help the film become a record. Many films made in the West do not get a theatrical release in China. For the most part, even the ones that don't hit theaters there until after they've been released elsewhere. Zootopia 2 received a simultaneous worldwide release and did even more in China than it did in the US, generating $200 million in one country alone.

The original film also did more at the box office than you might have realized. Only 14 animated films have ever grossed more than $1 billion at the box office, and Zootopia is one of them. Examples of animated films that did not reach that milestone include The Lion King, Finding Nemo, Shrek 2, and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.

It seems inevitable that Zootopia 2 will become the 15th animated film to make $1 billion; it's just a matter of when. Probably within the next few weeks. It will likely overtake the live-action remake How To Train Your Dragon ($636 million), and likely surpass A Minecraft Movie, which fell just short of $1 billion.

Surprisingly, it actually has a lot of work to do if it wants to become the biggest animated film of the year at the box office. That's thanks to China's Ne Zha 2, which ended its run at a whopping $2.2 billion.