'Ne Zha 2' Just Passed 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' and'Avengers: Infinity War' At The Worldwide Box Office

While China can no longer be expected to bail out Hollywood tentpoles, it continues to play a key role in where the various Avengers sequels and Avatar installments rank atop the global grossers list.

In a sign of how grim the overall global box office remains, Ne Zha 2 still topped this past weekend with $26 million in its seventh weekend in theaters. China’s animated sequel mega-smash has earned $2.08 billion in worldwide earnings. That puts it above the $2.05 billion cume of Avengers: Infinity War in 2018 and the $2.068 billion total of Star Wars: The Force Awakens in 2015. Bemusingly, that puts the total for the two Ne Zha films at around $2.8 billion, or equal to one Avatar or one Avengers: Endgame, both of which over-indexed in China in their initial theatrical releases.

What’s somewhat amusing is the extent to which A) Ne Zha 2 passes Titanic globally or Avatar overseas and B) Avatar: Fire & Ash can pass the over/under $2.1 billion final cume for Ne Zha 2 to take the global crown for 2025 is mostly dependent on China. The Middle Kingdom no longer rides to the (often illusionary) rescue for underwhelming tentpoles like Pacific Rim or xXx: Return of Xander Cage. Nor does it (anywhere near as often) artificially inflate the global grosses of already successful biggies like Minions or Transformers: Age of Extinction. However, they remain relative kingmakers for the very biggest earners.