# List of highest-grossing animated films
The highest-grossing animated films are ranked by worldwide theatrical box office revenue, a chart led since 2025 by the Chinese film *Ne Zha 2*, which had grossed $1,989,046,691 worldwide as of 30 June 2025 according to The Numbers.[1](https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/highest-box-office-film-gross-for-an-animation) Rankings of this kind are compiled from trackers such as [Box Office Mojo](https://www.edgepedia.org/box-office-mojo) and The Numbers, and they change as films still in release add to their totals.[1](https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/highest-box-office-film-gross-for-an-animation)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Current record holder | *Ne Zha 2* (China, 2025), $1,989,046,691 worldwide as of 30 June 2025[1](https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/highest-box-office-film-gross-for-an-animation) |
| Previous record | *Inside Out 2* (USA, 2024), $1,698,831,782[1](https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/highest-box-office-film-gross-for-an-animation) |
| Single-market record | *Ne Zha 2* took 13,967,697,245 yuan ($1,945,234,399) in China alone as of 17 June 2025[1](https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/highest-box-office-film-gross-for-an-animation) |
| Hollywood record | *Zootopia 2* (2025), $1.87 billion, the highest-grossing Hollywood animated film[2](https://apnews.com/article/8d9623e3d2229c4bfd4bc548f31f0ffe) |
| Billion-dollar club | 15 animated films have crossed $1 billion worldwide; 234 have crossed $100 million[3](https://www.whatsafterthemovie.com/box-office/genre/animation) |
| Leading franchise | *Despicable Me* was the first animated franchise to cross $5 billion in global box office sales[4](https://www.axios.com/2024/12/03/2024-kids-movies-box-office) |
| Inflation caveat | In real dollars or tickets sold, Disney's all-time animated hit is its first, *Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs* (1937)[5](https://time.com/49440/box-office-reports/) |
## The current record holders
*Ne Zha 2*, directed by Jiaozi (Yang Yu), surpassed the previous record of $1,698,831,782 set by Pixar's *Inside Out 2* (USA, 2024).[1](https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/highest-box-office-film-gross-for-an-animation) The film's money came overwhelmingly from one market: of its worldwide total, $1,945,234,399 was earned in China alone as of 17 June 2025, making it the highest-grossing film in a single market.[1](https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/highest-box-office-film-gross-for-an-animation)
*Inside Out 2* had itself broken the record in July 2024, reaching $1.46 billion worldwide and surpassing *Frozen II* as the top animated film ever at that point.[6](https://thewaltdisneycompany.org/news/inside-out-2-highest-grossing-animated-film-globally/index.html) It crossed the $1 billion mark in just 19 days of release, the fastest ever for an animated film, and stood as the highest-grossing movie of 2024 to that date.[6](https://thewaltdisneycompany.org/news/inside-out-2-highest-grossing-animated-film-globally/index.html)
**Hollywood's leader.** *Zootopia 2* (2025) became the highest-grossing Hollywood animated film of all time at $1.87 billion, and Disney's second-highest-grossing animated movie ever, trailing only the 2019 photorealistic *The Lion King* ($1.66 billion).[2](https://apnews.com/article/8d9623e3d2229c4bfd4bc548f31f0ffe) • [7](https://apnews.com/article/f0881c905b0c1c3c23ea79fd1966fe59) It passed *Frozen 2*'s $1.46 billion haul to become Disney's highest-grossing animated film to date.[8](https://www.creativebloq.com/art/animation/how-zootopia-2-became-disneys-biggest-animated-movie-ever)
## How the record has changed hands
The record has moved repeatedly as new releases outgross their predecessors. Earlier holders documented by [Guinness World Records](https://www.edgepedia.org/guinness-world-records) include Disney's *Frozen* (USA, 2013), which had grossed $1,272,469,910 worldwide as of 15 March 2019.[9](https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/102289-highest-grossing-animated-feature-film) Among films drawn by hand, the most successful is Disney's traditionally animated *The Lion King* (USA, 1994), which had grossed $986,214,868 worldwide as of January 2019.[10](https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/556672-highest-grossing-traditionally-animated-movie)
Recent years have compressed the timeline. *The Super Mario Bros. Movie* (2023) grossed $1.36 billion,[2](https://apnews.com/article/8d9623e3d2229c4bfd4bc548f31f0ffe) *Inside Out 2* took the record in 2024,[6](https://thewaltdisneycompany.org/news/inside-out-2-highest-grossing-animated-film-globally/index.html) and *Ne Zha 2* took it in 2025.[1](https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/highest-box-office-film-gross-for-an-animation) In 2026, two more animated films crossed $1 billion, *Toy Story 5* and *The Super Mario Galaxy Movie*, inside three months of each other.[11](https://ottweek.com/blog/biggest-animated-films-2026)
## Measurement problems
**Inflation.** Headline grosses are not adjusted for ticket prices, which rose 30 percent between 2004 and 2013 in the United States.[5](https://time.com/49440/box-office-reports/) In real dollars, or tickets sold, *Frozen* lags behind at least a dozen earlier Disney or Pixar cartoons, and Disney's all-time animated hit by that standard is *Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs*, the top-grossing film of 1938 and, in real dollars, the tenth-biggest money earner of all time.[5](https://time.com/49440/box-office-reports/) • [12](https://time.com/4609386/best-animated-films/) Much of *Snow White*'s gross was earned in reissues, roughly every seven years for half a century.[12](https://time.com/4609386/best-animated-films/)
**Scope of the category.** Charts also differ on where to draw the line between animation and live action. The 2019 *The Lion King* is described as photorealistic, and AP counts it separately from Disney's animated films even while ranking it above them in gross.[7](https://apnews.com/article/f0881c905b0c1c3c23ea79fd1966fe59) One ranking of the all-time animated chart notes that the distinction between fully animated and live-action hybrid films complicates rankings.[13](https://anystat.ai/stats/383/highest-grossing-animated-films-all-time) Re-releases add a further complication: Disney enjoyed lucrative theatrical re-releases before the home video era, and films such as *Toy Story*, *Howl's Moving Castle*, *Coraline*, and *Kiki's Delivery Service* have all returned to theaters in recent re-release runs.[14](https://animation.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_animated_films) • [15](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl3856695297/?sort=rank&sortDir=asc)
## The scale of the market
One database of 1,934 animated films with reported worldwide grosses totals $107.3 billion, an average of $55.5 million per film, with 35 percent of the total from the United States and Canada.[3](https://www.whatsafterthemovie.com/box-office/genre/animation) The genre's share of moviegoing has grown: as of December 2024, one-quarter of all domestic box office ticket sales that year were for animated films, and four of the ten highest-grossing domestic films of 2024 were animated.[4](https://www.axios.com/2024/12/03/2024-kids-movies-box-office) Eight of the 25 highest-grossing animated films of all time were released after 2020.[16](https://www.directv.com/insider/highest-grossing-animated-movies/)
**Franchises.** *Despicable Me* became the first animated franchise to cross $5 billion in global box office sales, driven by *Despicable Me 4*'s $122 million July Fourth domestic debut in 2024.[4](https://www.axios.com/2024/12/03/2024-kids-movies-box-office) Four of the fifteen highest-grossing films ever made are now animated, three of them released in the last two years.[11](https://ottweek.com/blog/biggest-animated-films-2026)
## References
1. [Highest-grossing animation at the global box office, Guinness World Records](https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/highest-box-office-film-gross-for-an-animation)
2. [Kids ate the multiplex: How family movies are taking over moviegoing, AP News](https://apnews.com/article/8d9623e3d2229c4bfd4bc548f31f0ffe)
3. [Animation Box Office: Highest-Grossing Films, What's After the Movie](https://www.whatsafterthemovie.com/box-office/genre/animation)
4. [Family-friendly films boost box office, Axios](https://www.axios.com/2024/12/03/2024-kids-movies-box-office)
5. [5 Things We've Learned in 5 Years of Box Office Reports, Time](https://time.com/49440/box-office-reports/)
6. ['Inside Out 2' Becomes the Highest-Grossing Animated Film of All Time Globally, The Walt Disney Company](https://thewaltdisneycompany.org/news/inside-out-2-highest-grossing-animated-film-globally/index.html)
7. [Hollywood starts 2026 with 'Avatar: Fire and Ash' No. 1, AP News](https://apnews.com/article/f0881c905b0c1c3c23ea79fd1966fe59)
8. [How Zootopia 2 became Disney's biggest animated movie ever, Creative Bloq](https://www.creativebloq.com/art/animation/how-zootopia-2-became-disneys-biggest-animated-movie-ever)
9. [Highest-grossing animated feature film at the global box office, Guinness World Records](https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/102289-highest-grossing-animated-feature-film)
10. [Highest-grossing traditionally animated movie, Guinness World Records](https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/556672-highest-grossing-traditionally-animated-movie)
11. [Animation Is Now the Biggest Business in Cinema — the Numbers From 2026, OTTweek](https://ottweek.com/blog/biggest-animated-films-2026)
12. [The 25 All-TIME Best Animated Films, Time](https://time.com/4609386/best-animated-films/)
13. [Highest-Grossing Animated Films of All Time, ANYSTAT](https://anystat.ai/stats/383/highest-grossing-animated-films-all-time)
14. [List of highest-grossing animated films, Animation Wiki](https://animation.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_animated_films)
15. [Toy Story 2025 Re-release, Box Office Mojo](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl3856695297/?sort=rank&sortDir=asc)
16. [25 Highest Grossing Animated Films (2026 Update), DIRECTV Insider](https://www.directv.com/insider/highest-grossing-animated-movies/)
---
*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › National and regional cinemas by year › Box-office and grossing lists › Highest-grossing animated films*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license