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‘Zootopia 2’ Gives Disney Another Thanksgiving Hit

Nov 30, 2025 16:34:00 -0500 by Janet H. Cho | #Media

‘Zootopia 2’ took the top spot at the weekend box office in another Thanksgiving hit for Walt Disney. (Courtesy Disney)

Key Points

Brave bunny cop Judy Hopps and her wily fox friend Nick Wilde did it again, teaming up in Walt Disney’s Zootopia 2 for a $158.8 million domestic box office debut.

Zootopia 2 not only opened at the top of the five-day Thanksgiving domestic box office, it gave Disney its second-highest domestic Thanksgiving opening ever, behind its own Moana 2, which obliterated expectations with a $225.4 million opening weekend for Thanksgiving 2024, generating 53% of the five-day weekend take.

The animated Zootopia 2, which reunites Ginnifer Goodwin and Jason Bateman against Ke Huy Quan as adversary Gary De’Snake, sold another $400.4 million internationally, for a $589.2 million global opening. The sequel performed 239% higher than the original Zootopia did in its domestic opening weekend in March 2016.

Zootopia 2 was the top movie globally, internationally, and domestically, the highest global debut of 2025, the highest global opening ever for a Disney movie, and the highest animated non-local opening of all time in China, according to Comscore.

Zootopia 2 sold another $28.5 million worldwide on Monday, bringing its global box office total to $589.2 million, of which $286.2 million came just from China, according to Disney. The film opens in Japan on Friday.

Hollywood is hoping the last few weeks of the year can push domestic box office sales. Zootopia 2 helped boost the five-day Thanksgiving weekend, from Wednesday to Sunday, to $292.8 million, the fourth biggest Thanksgiving haul of all time, according to Comscore. And 54% of that total was from Zootopia 2.

Last year’s five-day Thanksgiving box office of $424.9 million was the highest ever.

“While far short of last year’s record-breaking Thanksgiving frame, this year nonetheless delivered a solid holiday corridor for movie theaters,” pushing the year to date estimated total to $7.8 billion through Sunday, Comscore’s head of marketplace trends Paul Dergarabedian said. Still, that’s up 1% from this point in 2024.

That means that Hollywood needs to bank another $1.2 billion from now through Dec. 31 to hit $9 billion in annual domestic box office sales, with a number of potential hits and awards contenders on the way. Dergarabedian said the upcoming release calendar is optimistic given a weak fall season so far. It’s been “a very tumultuous post-summer season for the industry,” he said.

Before the Covid-19 pandemic, Hollywood was raking in about $11 billion a year at the domestic box office, with the record being $11.9 billion in 2018. Hollywood sold a total of $8.7 billion at the box office last year, as the industry was recovering from the writers’ and actors’ strikes, and $9.0 billion in 2023, the year of “Barbenheimer”.

Upcoming releases include Universal’s Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, and Sony Pictures’ Merrily We Roll Along, both opening on Friday. Then 20th Century Studios’ Avatar: Fire & Ash and Paramount Pictures’ The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants both open on Dec. 19.

Sony Pictures’ Anaconda, A24’s Marty Supreme, and Focus Features’ Song Sung Blue all open on Christmas.

Universal’s Broadway musical Wicked: For Good, whose Nov. 21 opening defied gravity after a year-long intermission from its first half, Wicked, last November, sold another $93 million to take second place over the five-day Thanksgiving weekend. Its domestic cumulative total through Sunday is $269.4 million, its international cume is $121.8 million, and globally it is $391.3 million. The film will open in China on Dec. 24.

Dergarabedian says the ‘PG’ rating of films like Wicked: For Good and Zootopia 2 is an important component of broadening their appeal to children, families, and other audience demographics, as happened with the first Wicked a year ago and many other recent family films.

IMAX also had a record weekend, with $40.8 million over the five-day Thanksgiving weekend, up 70% over the same weekend last year, and its biggest Thanksgiving weekend ever. That total includes $7.6 million for Zootopia 2; $7.2 million for Wicked: For Good; and $20.5 million of ticket sales in China.

Lionsgate’s mystery thriller Now You See Me: Now You Don’t sold $10.1 million to take third place over the five-day weekend, bringing its domestic cumulative sales to $49.7 million in its third weekend.

20th Century Studios’ Predator: Badlands took fourth place in its fourth weekend with $6.6 million over the five-day Thanksgiving weekend. The sci-fi thriller has grossed $173.7 million globally since opening on Nov. 7.

In fifth place was Paramount’s dystopian thriller The Running Man, with $5.5 million over the five-day weekend, for a total of $34.3 million domestically and $60.6 million globally.

The original Zootopia went on to sell more than $1 billion in global box office, including $684.3 million, or 67% of its take, outside the U.S., according to BoxOfficeMojo.

Write to Janet H. Cho at janet.cho@dowjones.com