One of 2016’s surprise hits, Walt Disney Animation Studios’ Zootopia, has officially surpassed the $1 billion mark at the worldwide box office this weekend ($ 1,000,019,682 to be exact), making it only the fourth animated film in history to do so. Zootopia now joins the ranks of Frozen, Minions and Toy Story 3, in what can be considered a rare achievement for animated films in general.
Zootopia set multiple records upon release, becoming Disney Animation’s largest opening ever, the largest opening for an animated film in March, and is also the highest grossing animated film ever in China. As of this post, Zootopia is the 26th highest grossing film of all time worldwide, and therefore the 26th film to ever cross $1 billion at the global box office. Needless to say, it currently stands as the highest grossing animated film of 2016 (and the second highest grossing film of the year, after Captain America: Civil War). What’s more, Zootopia is the second highest grossing original film (that is, not based on a source material, a sequel, prequel, or based on a true event, etc.) after Avatar.
For Walt Disney Animation Studios, Zootopia represents a brand new pinnacle: less than three years ago, Frozen smashed records to become the highest earning animated film in history ($1.2 billion), and now Zootopia enters the coveted billion dollar club. Not bad for a studio that released Chicken Little a decade ago and played second fiddle to Pixar for a long time. With Zootopia, Disney Animation is also the first animation studio to have two of their films to ever touch the billion-dollar mark. No pressure, Moana.
Directors Byron Howard and Rich Moore tweeted out their thanks to the fans for making Zootopia a roaring success.
HOLY SMOKES FOLKS!!!THANK YOU 1 million times over to everyone worldwide who made #Zootopia such a huge success!! ❤️ pic.twitter.com/wvWL0Wk7lZ
— Byron Howard (@ByronPHoward) June 5, 2016
We’ll wait and see if Zootopia remains the unchallenged champion of animation throughout 2016, or if Pixar’s Finding Dory (releasing on June 17) is able to surpass Zootopia’s impressive cume.
Zootopia also comes to Blu-ray, DVD and Digital HD on June 7. Listen to our review (with spoilers!) in our podcast episode here!
What do you think about Zootopia‘s impressive performance? Will Finding Dory be able to beat it?
Edited by: Kelly Conley