Gearing towards the end of 2025, there’s been a surprise in animated films overseas making a big splash in the box office worldwide. Chinese animated film, Ne Zha 2 and Japan’s Demon Slayer’s Infinity Castle did marvelous. Zootopia 2, the sequel to the 2016 movie, was a smash hit worldwide. Things begin to dip quickly from spot #4 and down. However, Japan’s other animation film, Chainsaw Man, it did quite well being released in 3,003 theaters in the United States on opening weekend and then smaller showings after that. Sitting at spot #10, Japan’s third animated film in the list, Jujutsu Kaisen: Execution, released in theaters in North America on December 5th, ranked in a little over $40 million worldwide. Expect it to grow a little more but that’s about it for the year.
Here are the top 10 biggest animated movies worldwide in 2025:
- Ne Zha 2 – $1.9 billion
- Zootopia 2 (our review) – $917 million
- Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Movie – Infinity Castle (our review) – $768 million
- The Bad Guys 2 (our review) – $239 million
- Elio (our review) – $154 million
- Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc (our review) – $150 million
- Dog Man (our review) – $145 million
- Smurfs (our review) – $124 million
- Detective Conan: One-Eyed Flashback – $109 million
- Jujutsu Kaisen: Execution – $40 million
GKIDS animated film, Little Amélie or the Character of Rain, which grew nominations from many, including from MMCG, ranked in $1.53 million worldwide.
Could we see more Disney/Pixar films make a bigger jump in next year’s theaters? Could we see more animated films overseas make the same or bigger splash like Ne Zha 2 or Demon Slayer? What animated movies are you looking forward to next year?
Source: Box Office Mojo