‘Ne Zha 2’ gains milestone 10b yuan, enters global top 20 club

It is a moment that will be remembered in the history of the Chinese film industry - animated film Ne Zha 2 topped 10 billion yuan ($1.4 billion) in the global box office as of 7:10 pm on Thursday, according to statistics from China's ticketing platform Maoyan.

Ranking above blockbusters like The Super Mario Bros. Movie and Black Panther, it has become the first Asian film to enter the top 20 club of global box office records. After scoring a big success at home, the film's overseas releases in multiple markets have earned it positive reviews from foreign audiences, contributing to the milestone moment.

"It shows the world's filmmakers the development of Chinese cinema, the support for Chinese films, and the deep cultural significance behind them, including the success of Eastern aesthetics. This is a monumental milestone for the Chinese film industry," Sun Jiashan, an associate researcher at the Central Academy of Culture and Tourism Administration, told the Global Times on Thursday.

As of Thursday, Ne Zha 2 has also become the first film in Chinese cinema history to have over 200 million viewers, statistics from China's ticketing platform Maoyan showed.

Global appeal

The number is still rising as the film was screened in front of overseas audiences around the world. On Thursday, it was officially released in countries including Australia and New Zealand. The film has been screened in over 116 theaters in these two countries, earning it the title of highest-grossing Chinese film in the region for advanced screenings over the past 20 years, according to overseas distributor CMC.

The CMC also said that in North America, Ne Zha 2 has been scheduled in over 700 theaters, breaking the record for the largest opening theater count for a Chinese film distributed by a Chinese studio in the region in the past 20 years.

C.L. Chadwick, an Australian student who watched Ne Zha 2 at the preview screenings in Adelaide, told the Global Times that he was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the Chinese animation and the movie certainly challenged biases he may have held beforehand about its competitiveness.

"Animation and modern art are not areas that most Australians would associate with China, but I would strongly agree with that Ne Zha 2 was on par with Western animation from both a technical and artistic standpoint," the Australian said.

He is among many overseas viewers who love this Chinese animated film and who want to share and talk about it on various social media platforms, including Rednote. Numerous international movie fans have taken to it to engage with Chinese audiences, discussing the film's storytelling, spiritual depth, and stunning visual effects.

Some foreign media outlets have hailed the film for "redefining the heights of China's film industry," while several Hollywood producers, after viewing the movie, expressed interest in pursuing more collaborations with their Chinese counterparts.
Striving for perfection

The Chinese Film Audience Satisfaction Survey by China Film Archive shows that the satisfaction score for Ne Zha 2 is 87.3 out of 100, making it the "most satisfying film" among the Spring Festival film season releases in the past two years.

The number of characters in the film is three times that of the first instalment released in 2019. There are nearly 2,000 special effects shots, exceeding the total number of shots in the first film, and a creative team consisting of over 4,000 people. The end credits feature nearly 140 Chinese animation companies.

Behind the success of Ne Zha 2 lies the creative team's unwavering determination, as expressed by the line "I am the master of my own fate," from the movie's core character Ne Zha, Sun Jiashan added.

The film's director Yang Yu, also known as Jiaozi, revealed in an interview that he estimated that "Ne Zha 2 might take about three years to finish."

"But as we got deeper into the work, we just couldn't stop. Everyone hoped to constantly strive for perfection and do their jobs to the best of their abilities," he said.

While retaining the distinctiveness of mythology, Chinese animators like Jiaozi endow it with a resonance of the times. They are breaking away from imitating Western films in terms of both aesthetics and narrative, achieving a cultural renaissance of Eastern aesthetics.

In an interview with the Global Times, Zhang Yiwu, a professor at the Peking University, summarized it as "the unique charm of traditional culture, the long-term accumulation of cultural context, and excellent contemporary transformation".

In order to ensure the accuracy of the characters' images and the integrity of the picture details, director Jiaozi personally acted out more than 70 percent of the scenes in the film.

Furthermore, a rich variety of ethnic musical instruments and elements including grand songs of the Dong ethnic group, suona horn, khoomei, and the ocarina-like xun were included in the film's soundtrack.

Professor Zhang believes that "the combination of traditional Chinese music and Chinese animated films has a strong chemical reaction."

Cultural exchanges

The glowing market performances and high quality of Chinese films like Ne Zha 2 not only encourage the Chinese film industry and filmmakers, but also inject confidence into the global industry.

Lai Li, a market analyst at Maoyan platform, believes that the film's market performance has significantly raised the ceiling of the single-film box office in the history of Chinese cinema, bringing great inspiration to Chinese filmmakers, especially Chinese animation creators.

"It also demonstrates the strong resilience and huge upward potential of the Chinese film market, and further boosts the confidence in Chinese national culture," he told the Global Times on Thursday.

"This enthusiasm is expected to further sweep across the globe, allowing the world to witness the outstanding strength of Chinese animation and experience the unique charm of Chinese traditional culture and Chinese films," he added.

"Ne Zha 2" earned 562 million yuan in IMAX box office revenue within just 15 days of its release, surpassing "Avengers: Endgame" to become the highest-grossing IMAX release ever in China.

Daniel Manwaring, CEO of IMAX China, told the Global Times, "this offers audiences exactly what they are looking for: not just the experience of watching a movie, but the chance to engage in a true cultural event, one that is made possible through the combination of the experience and high-quality film content."

Zhang Peng, a film researcher and associate professor at Nanjing Normal University, remarked that the breakthrough significance of Ne Zha 2 goes far beyond the impact of a single film, becoming a landmark case for the global export of Chinese culture.

Speaking of the reasons for the warm response toward the film across the world, Zhang pointed out that by focusing on the narrative on the coming-of-age journey of a rebellious teenager and incorporating universal emotions such as family bonds and responsibility, the film lowers the cognitive barrier of its mythological background.

"In many ways, Ne Zha 2's impressive performance signifies the transition of Chinese cinema from being a 'market miracle' to becoming a 'cultural export.' The film has already provided the world with a window into the rise of China's film industry and its growing cultural soft power," said Zhang.