The Marvel Cinematic Universe stuttering may have been bad news for Disney on the whole, as the studio has three of the highest-grossing movies of the year. The biggest film of 2025 for Disney isn’t a live-action remake, nor a Marvel Studios release, nor an Avatar sequel (not yet, at least), it’s Zootopia 2. As of today, the highly anticipated sequel has brought in over $1.46 billion at the global box office, setting a major Disney record and confirming that the studio has a huge franchise on their hand that has a major advantage over its others.
Zootopia 2 Becomes Disney Animation’s Biggest Film Ever
Courtesy of Disney
With the $1.46 billion total that Zootopia 2 has accumulated globally, the film has cemented its place as the #2 movie for all of 2025, sitting behind Ne Zha 2‘s $2 billion gross and above Lilo & Stitch‘s $1.038 billion (Avatar: Fire and Ash continues to climb, though). More importantly, though, Zootopia 2‘s $1.46 billion gross has made it the highest-grossing Walt Disney Animation Studios movie of all time, eclipsing 2019’s Frozen II with its $1.45 billion gross.
Even though Zootopia 2 sits behind the first film at the domestic box office currently ($333 million compared to $341 million), the sequel still has long legs that will continue to grow throughout the rest of January. More importantly, though, the international gross for the sequel is nearly double what the first Zootopia had. Back in 2016, Zootopia made $677 million internationally, while the sequel currently sits at $1.13 billion internationally, painting a major picture for the popularity of this series on a global scale and making it clear that going forward this is one of Disney’s tentpole franchises.
The nine-year gap in-between Zootopia movies was a long one, with only the Disney+ TV series Zootopia+ released in that time. Given the success of the film now, though, there’s zero chance that Disney doesn’t quickly put expansion of the series in motion, and fast. Time between sequels often allows the anticipation for the follow-up to build and increase the box office, but with receipts like this, which Disney has had fewer and fewer of in recent years, development on more Zootopia movies seems like a guarantee. The only question is when, not if.
