Photo: AFP/Pedro Pardo
Gergely Salát
28/02/2025 06:00
For a long time, Hollywood dominated Chinese cinemas, but in the second half of the 2010s, this began to change as Chinese audiences increasingly turned towards domestic films. In 2017, the incredible success of Wolf Warrior 2 permanently ended American hegemony, a feat only surpassed by the 2021 war epic The Battle at Lake Changjin. However, this year’s Ne Zha 2 has outshone both. The animated blockbuster set a new record every day during the Lunar New Year period. It became the highest-grossing non-American and non-English-language film of all time, the third-highest-grossing animated film worldwide, and the first non-American film to reach one billion dollars in revenue. It has also entered the top twenty highest-grossing films in global cinema history. Remarkably, it achieved all this in a single market and in just two weeks. Forecasts suggest it will soon be competing with Titanic and the Avatar films.
Officially titled Ne Zha, the Demon Child Upends the Sea, this animated fantasy is the sequel to the highly successful 2019 Ne Zha. The protagonist is a well-known figure in Chinese mythology—a young boy with extraordinary abilities who rebels against divine hierarchy and his own destiny. The plot is based on a story from the 16th-century novel Fengshen Yanyi (The Investiture of the Gods), though the filmmakers have taken considerable creative liberties. This may well be the secret to its popularity: generations of Chinese viewers are familiar with and fond of the boy who defeats dragons, monsters, and spirits, yet the latest film employs cutting-edge animation and modern storytelling techniques. This blend of tradition and innovation appeals to both lovers of classic tales and enthusiasts of contemporary cinema. Directed by Yang Yu (known by his artistic pseudonym Jiaozi), a former pharmacist, the film took five years to complete, involving 138 animation studios and 4,000 employees. It is the most expensive Chinese animation ever made.
The success of Ne Zha 2 has been a much-needed lifeline for Chinese cinemas and the domestic film industry. Following the disastrous COVID years, cinema ticket sales began to recover to pre-pandemic levels in 2023, but economic difficulties and a lack of major blockbusters led to another decline last year. In 2025, Ne Zha 2’s Lunar New Year revenue alone—1.4 billion dollars—is equivalent to a quarter of last year’s total box office revenue. This does not even include earnings from the sale of plush toys, pencil cases, T-shirts, and phone cases featuring the film’s characters.
The triumph of Ne Zha 2 is also a matter of national pride. Despite China’s rich animation tradition, its industry had never achieved international success. Even Chinese stories, such as Mulan, were told to the world—and even to the Chinese people themselves—by American studios. The first Ne Zha film changed that, and its sequel has propelled Chinese animation to the forefront of global cinema. Hopefully, the film will eventually make its way to Hungary as well.
The author is the head of the Department of Chinese Studies at PPKE BTK and a senior researcher at the Hungarian Institute of International Affairs