Ne Zha 2

Source: Enlight Pictures

‘Ne Zha 2’

Chinese animated feature Ne Zha 2 has flown past $900m (RMB6.48bn) at the local box office to become the country’s biggest film of all time.

After opening on January 29, the first day of Chinese New Year, the fantasy adventure feature took only eight days to reach $823.45m (RMB6bn) on February 6.

It has toppled previous record holders including 2021 epic The Battle At Lake Changjin ($802m/RMB5.77bn), 2017’s Wolf Warriors 2 ($790.8m/RMB5.69bn) and 2021’s Hi, Mom ($751.8m/RMB5.4bn).

The film is still holding strong after the week-long Chinese New Year holidays and is set to reach $1.37bn (RMB10bn), according to ticketing and big data platform Maoyan. This would make Ne Zha 2 the first film to pass the $1bn milestone in a single market.

It will also almost certainly overtake the $936.7m taken by Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens in North America to become the highest grossing film ever in a single market.

The sequel is directed by Jiaozi, who made his feature debut with Ne Zha in 2019, which ranks as China’s fifth biggest film with $699.3m (RMB5bn) and was the country’s submission to the Oscars, where it was also in the running for best animated feature in 2020.

Both films are backed by Enlight Pictures. The titular Ne Zha is a well-known boy character from Chinese mythology with unique powers. The character has previously appeared in literature, film and on TV, including Prince Nezha’s Triumph Against Dragon King, produced by Shanghai Animation Film Studio, which was the first Chinese animated film to screen at Cannes in 1980.

Jiaozi, which means dumplings in Chinese, is a pseudonym for Yang Yu. The filmmaker previously recalled watching this earlier animated feature as a child and gives his Ne Zha a modern spin, creating a mischievous boy who must choose between good and evil to break the shackles of fate and become a hero.

Speaking to Screen about the success of his debut, he commented on his choice of picking Ne Zha as the protagonist: “When it’s a work made by an unknown director and an unknown animation company, it is important to use a household character with a huge fanbase to increase our chances of success - rather than an original character with an original story, just like Disney’s first animation was Snow White. Filmmaking is a high-risk business — we have to be practical when it comes to certain creative decisions.”

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