Consumer Trends Insights | "Ne Zha 2" Surpasses 10 Billion Yuan at the Box Office in Just 16 Days, Applause for the Rise of Chinese Animation!

The Spring Festival schedule is one of the most important schedules in the Chinese film market throughout the year, and it has always been a crucial moment for various films to compete for box office.

The Spring Festival in 2025 is particularly special. "Ne Zha 2: The Devil Child Creates Havoc in the Sea" (abbreviated as "Ne Zha 2") not only stood out in the highly competitive environment but also achieved a reverse box office decline. It broke the 10 billion yuan mark at the box office within 16 days of its release and is still on the rise, triggering widespread social discussions and media attention.

Source: Shiyan Big Consumption Insight Platform

Since its release, "Ne Zha 2" has been warmly welcomed by the audience. Its story continues the spiritual core of the previous work "Ne Zha: Birth of the Demon Child", telling the growth process of Ne Zha when facing fate and social prejudice. With exquisite animation production, profound character depictions, and touching storylines, the film has quickly accumulated a large number of fans during the Spring Festival schedule. Its box office trend is like the film's plot, "Starting high and going crazy", surpassing many competitors and topping the box office list in Chinese film history.

Reverse Box Office Decline

According to the data from Maoyan Professional Edition, "Ne Zha 2" has achieved a daily box office of more than 600 million yuan for several consecutive days since the beginning of the Chinese New Year, and a significant reverse box office decline occurred after the third day of the Chinese New Year. According to the data from the online platform, as of 4:30 on February 12, the box office (including pre-sales) of the film "Ne Zha: Birth of the Demon Child Creates Havoc in the Sea" has exceeded 9 billion yuan, becoming the first 9-billion-yuan box office film in Chinese film history, breaking the monopoly of Hollywood films in the 9-billion-yuan box office club.

As of 11:00 on February 14, 2025, the real-time box office of "Ne Zha 2" is 10.2 billion yuan, ranking in the top 16 of the global box office list and continuing to climb the global film history box office list.

Data source: Maoyan Professional Edition Global Film History Box Office List

Hot Topics Continuously Dominating and Fermenting

The topics related to "Ne Zha 2" on social platforms such as Weibo and Douyin continue to heat up. The cumulative reading volume of related topics such as "#Ne Zha 2 Tops the Box Office List in Chinese Film History#", "#Ne Zha 2 Box Office Breaks 9 Billion#", and "#Ne Zha 2 Aims for 10 Billion Box Office#" has reached hundreds of millions of times, and the video playback volume has also exceeded the million-level. According to the social media monitoring data of Zhishu Technology, since the release of "Ne Zha 2" on the first day of the Chinese New Year (January 29, 2025 to February 12, 2025), the total number of related articles has reached 74,600, and the total interaction number is 366 million.

Total number of articles

Total interaction

Communication trend, Data source: Shiyan Big Consumption Insight Platform

Analysis of Hot Events

Behind the "starting high and going crazy" dominance of "Ne Zha 2" in the Spring Festival schedule is the joint creation of many factors.

Rich plot and character shaping:

The character shaping is three-dimensional. Whether it is Ne Zha, Shen Gongbao, the Dragon Clan, or the Monster Beasts, they are all endowed with complex humanity and motives, breaking the stereotype of "demons are evil and immortals are good", and enhancing emotional resonance.

Theme depth and social resonance:

"Ne Zha 2" not only continues the spirit of the previous work "My fate is decided by me, not by the heaven", but also deeply explores the hypocritical rules and the boundary between good and evil behind the "distinction between gods and demons". By revealing the dark side under the rule of the Heavenly Court, the film breaks the traditional binary opposition between good and evil, criticizes the hypocrisy of power and rules, echoes the contemporary society's pursuit of fairness and justice, triggers the audience's deep thinking about morality and justice, and gains widespread resonance.

Exquisite production and technological breakthrough:

Director Jiaozi led the team to meticulously polish for 5 years, with the script creation taking more than 2 years and the post-production taking 3 years. The initial design of the special effects shots in the entire film was 5,000, and finally 1,500 were selected, accounting for 80% of the entire film. More than 20 production teams were mobilized, with more than 60 outsourcing teams and more than 1,500 participants. The film contains a total of more than 1,900 special effects shots and more than 10,000 special effects elements, and every frame of the picture reflects the top-level technical level. There are 138 domestic animation production companies providing technical support behind the film, covering multiple links from modeling, rendering to action design, and light and shadow effects, gathering the strengths of many to ensure the high-quality output of the film.

Cultural confidence and national identity:

While retaining the core of Chinese mythology, the film integrates modern values, which not only satisfies the audience's identification with traditional culture but also provides a new perspective of interpretation. As a representative work of domestic animation, the success of "Ne Zha 2" further stimulates the audience's pride in local culture and promotes the development of Chinese animated films.

Real-time hot comments from users on Weibo's hot list:

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Source: Weibo

Source: Weibo

Source: Weibo

The explosion of "Ne Zha 2" stems from its profound theme, subversive plot adaptation, full character shaping, and exquisite production level. The film not only shows the maturity of the Chinese film industry but also triggers widespread social resonance by discussing universal themes such as good and evil, power, and rules.

At the same time, the professional attitude and market sincerity of the team, as well as the innovative expression of Chinese traditional culture, have set a new benchmark for domestic animated films. In the future, with the emergence of more high-quality works, we have reasons to believe that the Chinese film industry will usher in a more brilliant development prospect.