In a relatively quiet pre-holiday movie weekend, “Zootopia 2” recaptured the No. 1 position at the domestic box office, earning an estimated $26.3 million in its third weekend of release.
This success propelled the animated Disney sequel to a major milestone, becoming only the second film of 2025 to cross the $1 billion mark in worldwide ticket sales.
The film has quickly accumulated $1.14 billion globally, heavily boosted by its phenomenal performance in China, where it has grossed $502.4 million. This makes “Zootopia 2” the most successful Hollywood release in the country in several years.
The only other 2025 Hollywood title to reach $1 billion worldwide is Disney’s “Lilo & Stitch” ($1.04 billion), though the year’s overall highest-grossing film remains the Chinese blockbuster “Ne Zha 2”, which collected nearly $2 billion solely in China.
The weekend’s main competitor, the sequel “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” (Universal Pictures and Blumhouse Productions), secured the second spot with $19.5 million. This represented a significant drop of 70% from its opening weekend.
Despite the steep decline, the $36 million production has earned a domestic total of $95.5 million, marking a financial success for Blumhouse and solidifying another horror franchise.
The most noteworthy new release was James L. Brooks’ “Ella McCay,” his first directorial effort in 15 years, which disappointed with a meager $2.1 million from 2,500 locations, making it one of the worst wide releases of the year.
The comic drama, which cost $35 million to produce and features Jamie Lee Curtis, Ayo Edebiri, and Woody Harrelson, was hampered by poor reviews (22% on Rotten Tomatoes) and a genre that increasingly struggles to find large theatrical audiences.
With overall 2025 ticket sales trailing last year’s figures, Hollywood is eagerly anticipating the upcoming holiday corridor, which historically serves as the busiest moviegoing season, to end the year strongly.
Highly anticipated releases include “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” “The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants,” and “Marty Supreme.”
