A heart of gold from a nest of vipers? Disney’s first reptile protagonist Gary De’Snake is enchanting Chinese fans and allowing the studio to strike gold in the year of the snake.
Gary’s popularity has helped propel Disney’s “Zootopia 2” to become the top-grossing imported animated film in Chinese history, beating expectations and renewing hope that Hollywood has regained box office appeal in its most lucrative international market.
The highly anticipated sequel to the 2016 hit has earned more than $540 million in China since its release on Nov. 26, representing almost half of the movie’s global takings. It’s the second-best performer of the year in the world’s second-largest movie market, trailing only a wildly popular Chinese animation, “Ne Zha II.” It also has already dethroned the overall best-selling imported film, a title held by “Avengers: Endgame,” on several measures and is edging closer to taking top spot.
“Zootopia 2” arrived on the scene after Hollywood lost some of its appeal in China in recent years — with Disney’s live-action version of “The Little Mermaid” and “Snow White” both flopping — and as domestic productions dominate the box office in China. So its success — which extends to merchandise sales and the popularity of Shanghai Disneyland’s Zootopia-themed attraction — has surprised some industry watchers.
Part of this success is due to the movie’s cute — and decidedly not political — storyline: Detectives Judy Hopps, a bunny, and Nick Wilde, a fox, are assigned to crack a mystery revolving around pit viper Gary De’Snake.
While the first Zootopia included social commentary on police brutality and the sequel reflects on social prejudices, many Chinese viewers unfamiliar with American social context commended the films’ “lack of political preaching.”
It’s good, fluffy — or scaly — fun at a time when many in China are feeling the weight of the slowing domestic economy and geopolitical tensions with the United States and Japan.
“It may not be a masterpiece, but a feel-good and family-friendly movie is something we all need right now,” said Chongqing cafe owner Lu Liao. “For a moment, we can forget about geopolitics and coexist in peace in Zootopia.”
The original Zootopia film was released in 2016, yet prolonged marketing campaigns — including Shanghai Disneyland opening the world’s first-ever Zootopia-themed park in 2023 and China Eastern Airlines launching a Zootopia-themed plane last year — have helped create hype for the sequel.
There’s a much-needed economic boost too. Official merchandise including plush dolls, cushions and handbags has sold out almost as soon as it is restocked in movie theaters, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported. Zootopia has partnered with Chinese brands to release thousands of co-branded products from clothing, electronics, foods and beverages to pet supplies, according to the China Daily newspaper.
Tan Yujiao, a 32-year-old school administrator in the city of Changsha, took her two kids to see the film, the family’s first movie outing in seven months as Tan tried to cut nonessential costs after her husband was laid off earlier this year.
“I’ve missed my favorite duo and am so happy to see them back,” Tan said, referring to the fox and bunny characters.
“My sons love ‘Zootopia 2’ and they would love to see and hug the animals in Disneyland too,” Tan said. A visit to the park is out of their budget now but, with her husband getting a job offer, they might be able to stretch to the 3D version of the movie next week.
Yin Jianjun, a 37-year-old office worker in Shanghai, said he was “not too impressed” by the movie, calling the plot “flat” and preferring the first installment, but his 8-year-old daughter Yoyo gave it a “10 out of 10” rating, saying her favorite character is Gary De’Snake, a goofy and optimistic blue-scaled pit viper who is marginalized and misunderstood before eventually redeeming his reputation.
Gary was designed with Chinese audiences in mind from the beginning, as a cultural nod to the Chinese zodiac, Walt Disney’s chief creative officer, Jared Bush, who wrote and co-directed Zootopia 2, said on social media and in interviews. In the lunar calendar, 2025 is the year of the snake.
The Gary craze even inspired a buying spree of pet snakes, in particular the highly venomous blue pit viper endemic to India and Southeast Asia. Chinese e-commerce sites, rife with live snake offerings soon after the movie’s premiere, have largely removed the listings following user reporting and media scrutiny, Shanghai-based outlet The Paper reported.
A slithering character is not for everyone, though. One user on the Instagram-style app Xiaohongshu (Rednote) wrote that she ran out of the theater halfway through the movie because Gary and other reptile characters triggered her childhood trauma of being bitten by a snake.
“Zootopia 2” now has a 8.2 out of 10 rating on Chinese review aggregator Douban, indicating near-universal acclaim. It dominated screenings in the first week with up to 80 percent of prime slots in major cities, according to state media reports. Some cities even hosted pet-friendly screenings, letting dog owners watch the film alongside their pets.
It’s so popular and concerns about piracy are so pronounced that state media, including the Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily, have urged viewers to avoid taking photos and videos during screenings.
The film’s success has also come as a welcome relief to authorities.
The Chinese film regulator was seeking a year-end box office boost to reach the country’s $7 billion annual target, and the box office takings have given them a big boost toward reaching that goal.
“The Chinese film market was tepid in the second half of the year,” said Leslie Chin, a Shanghai-based independent film researcher. “We were desperately waiting for a market savior, and fortunately ‘Zootopia 2’ came up.”
China strictly regulates how many foreign films can be shown in the country and the standard showing period is one month. American films have had a tougher time as relations with China have soured in recent years, although “Avatar: Fire and Ash” opened on Friday.
But film regulators have welcomed the performance of “Zootopia 2” and its screenings could be extended until at least the Lunar New Year holiday in February, said a marketing officer for a Shanghai cinema chain, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to talk about government policy.
U.S. production companies could also be the beneficiaries of the diplomatic row with Japan, China’s second largest supplier of foreign movies, after the United States.
“With the relationship with Japan souring, China seems more open to Hollywood,” the marketing officer said, referring to Beijing’s decision to cancel or postpone the release of multiple Japanese films last month in retaliation for Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s suggestion of military support for Taiwan, which the Chinese Communist Party considers part of its territory.
Major U.S. studios, including Disney, have maintained strong ties with the China Film Administration through strategic co-productions and local partnerships, which partly explains why Beijing has so far refrained from going to the same extreme for American movies even during the most intense days of the trade war, the film marketer added.
The Global Times, a state-affiliated tabloid, said that the success of “Zootopia 2” shows how Chinese consumers still have an appetite for Hollywood movies, which in turn need the Chinese market.
Chin, the Shanghai film researcher, said that the success of “Zootopia 2” and “Ne Zha II” doesn’t mean there is a bullish market overall, and that Chinese and Hollywood movies have more daunting tasks than competing with each other.
“Our biggest problem is, people are not coming to watch movies in cinemas anymore. We would need many more Zootopias to really bring viewers back.”
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