Audiences have not been especially receptive to animated movies so far in 2025, and the could still be months away from Hollywood's first hit. Due to the family-friendly nature of animated movies, they are typically some of the biggest movies of every year financially. Inside Out 2 and Moana 2 were two of the three highest-grossing films worldwide just last year.
Yet, there have not been any major box office hits to come from Hollywood's animation studios this year. DreamWorks had a modest success with Dog Man, which made $145 million worldwide, but it doesn't seem to be a film that stuck with families. The only other notable performer so far is Angel Studios' The King of Kings, the story of Jesus Christ, which made $67 million off a reported $15 million budget.
The power of Disney and its marketing strategies had the hope of turning the year around for animated films. But, Elio had Pixar's worst box office opening ever. It's made less than $50 million at the box office worldwide in its first full week of release.
This has , which is more curious in the wake of China's animated sequel Ne Zha 2 becoming the highest grossing animated movie of all time a few months ago. Unfortunately, it looks like Hollywood could still be waiting a bit for a massive financial success from animation.
While 2026's animated movie slate is one of the best of all-time, the same is not true of 2025. That helps explain some of the difficulty with these films in recent months, but the bad news is that it may not end in the immediate future, despite several more animated movies releasing soon.
There are no fully animated Hollywood movies releasing in theaters this September or October
The only major animated movies coming out this summer, where families can have more time to go to theaters, are . There are no fully animated Hollywood movies releasing in theaters this September or October currently either.
The Smurfs franchise was once a big box office performer, as Sony's two live-action/CGI hybrid films made nearly $1 billion combined. But, the last fully animated installment, 2017's Smurfs: The Lost Village, topped out at $197 million. Paramount's big marketing push and Rihanna's music may not be enough to really drive that much more interest.
The Bad Guys 2 is hoping to build nicely on the first film's solid $250 million performance in 2022. I'm not fully dismissing DreamWorks' sequel and its chances to do good business, possibly even outgrossing its predecessor. But is there any world it climbs higher than $400 million?
Early interest tracking from June provided by The Quorum wasn't that encouraging for either title. Smurfs had a 39% awareness and 32% interest, both down from before. The Bad Guys 2 was at 32% awareness and 31% interest. at the time.
Both have seen their scores go up since then. Smurfs has a 47% awareness and 34% interest, while The Bad Guys 2 has a 40% awareness and 36% interest. Yet, those levels are still on par with a film from a major studio that just had a $20.8 million opening weekend. That's not a good place to be in.
At this point, it appears that Disney will be the studio to give animated movies the first, and possibly only, major hit of the year. , so it can be part of the extended Thanksgiving weekend window that can often yield robust box office returns.
The movie is a sequel to Walt Disney Animation's surprise hit from 2016. The original Zootopia made over $1 billion after it came out in March of that year, as it had great legs throughout the spring and summer.
| Zootopia Key Facts | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| $75,063,401 | $341,268,248 | $1,025,521,689 | 98% Critics / 92% Audiences |
Disney is betting on the sequel to do just as well, if not better, now that it has a prime release window. , including Moana 2 breaking Frozen II's record last year. Zootopia 2 could easily outperform its predecessor's $75 million opening then.
That's a big reason why Zootopia 2 is in a great position to be a huge hit for Disney and the box office at large. Even if it doesn't quite match the first film overall, it should easily have the largest box office haul of any of this year's other animated movies.
, but it skyrocketing to the top of the overall genre chart for 2025 is much trickier. Ne Zha 2 has made over $2 billion at the box office, almost entirely in China.
It's difficult to imagine Zootopia 2 beating Ne Zha 2 to claim the title for 2025's highest grossing animated movie overall. It doesn't need to do that to be considered a success, though. Even if there's a big drop between the first film and sequel, ' is destined to be a big box office hit for animated movies Hollywood has struggled to find this year.
