We're almost halfway through 2025. Even though the summer blockbuster season hasn't yet begun, 2025 has already provided plenty of cause for optimism in the global box office during the first five months of the year. Despite Marvel's ongoing struggles, Hollywood movies regained their footing. With Final Destination: Bloodlines and Sinners leading the way for horror, Tom Cruise reaffirmed his status as a superstar. However, despite all of this, Hollywood has not produced the highest-grossing movie of the year thus far. It's designed for children and doesn't have any major celebrities. Nonetheless, it has been able to defeat the industry giants on its own.

The movie that earned the most money in 2025

The top box office hit of the year thus far has been the Chinese animated movie Ne Zha 2. With only ¥600 million ($80 million) in production costs, the picture has already brought in $2.2 billion globally, making it the highest-grossing animated movie ever and one of the highest-grossing films of all time, second only to giants like Avatar and Avengers: Endgame. Ne Zha 2 defeated Warner Bros.' A Minecraft Movie for the top spot. The second-place feature has grossed $948 million globally. With a worldwide take of $632 million and counting, Disney's Lilo & Stitch is currently ranked third. The fourth spot is occupied by another Chinese movie, Detective Chinatown 1900, while Captain America: Brave New World by Marvel completes the top five.

How Ne Zha 2 beat heavyweights

Ne Zha 2's success can be gauged by the fact that it has earned nearly six times as much as Tom Cruise's hit Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning or Marvel's Thunderbolts. The Paramount film has earned $389 million, while the MCU's antihero team-up is at $371 million. Despite wide releases globally, they have been unable to match Ne Zha 2's pace. What has made Ne Zha 2 so popular is its universal appeal in China. The film is based on Chinese mythology and legends, and has been seen as a fun, educational family watch in the country. This, coupled with China's impressive 90,000 screens, has meant that the film was able to sustain record footfalls for long durations, selling out theatres for weeks in parts of the country.

What lies ahead

Ne Zha 2 may be hard to dethrone. Only four films have ever earned more - Avatar, Avengers: Endgame, Avatar: The Way of Water, and Titanic. Yet, 2025 boasts a strong line-up of films that can break the $2 billion mark. First up is James Gunn's Superman reboot, followed by Marvel's new Fantastic Four film. But perhaps the film that has the best chance of surpassing Ne Zha 2 at the box office is James Cameron's Avatar: Fire and Ash, which releases in December.

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