Production company/distribution studio A24 announced on Wednesday that it will bring 2025’s biggest international box office hit back into theaters, now in a new English version. Ne Zha 2, sequel to the 2019 animated movie Ne Zha, sits atop the 2025 worldwide box office, with nearly $1.9 billion in theatrical receipts. It’s the most profitable animated movie ever, and one of the top 10 biggest box-office earners of all time, as well as the highest-grossing non-English-language film in history. But those proceeds were earned almost entirely in the movie’s home country, China.
The film’s previous American release back in February brought in only $20 million, due in part to a limited rollout, minimal advertising, and American audiences’ lack of familiarity with the characters and story. A24, the eclectic boutique responsible for distributing movies from Everything Everywhere All At Once to Hereditary and Midsommar, is banking that the film will be a significantly bigger hit in the West with more conventional release support.
The company’s announcement says it will return Ne Zha 2 to “theaters across the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand,” in 3D and IMAX releases, starting on Aug. 22. The voice cast for the English version has not been revealed, apart from Everything Everywhere All At Once star and Best Actress winner Michelle Yeoh in an undisclosed role.
Ne Zha 2 is based on characters from Chinese legend who have been reimagined countless times in different stories in different eras: demon-boy Ne Zha and elegant dragon-warrior Ao Bing, in this storyline conceived as two immensely powerful figures with infinite potential, born from the same mystic artifact. Ne Zha saw them pitted against each other in their youth and eventually becoming allies, while contending with a plot against Ao Bing’s ancient dragon father. The sequel picks up the story shortly after the first movie left off, with both young warriors dealing with new bodies, new intrigues, and a quest crucial to survival for one of them. It’s part epic drama, part comedy, with tremendous superpower-driven cosmic battles sharing the screen with gross-out gags and fart jokes.
Here’s A24’s synopsis:
A rebellious young boy, Ne Zha, is feared by the gods and born to mortal parents with wild, uncontrolled powers. Now he’s faced with an ancient force intent on destroying humanity, he must grow up to become the hero the world needs.
Ne Zha 2 is a spectacle movie, best seen on a big screen: It’s an intense experience for fans of martial arts fantasy and supernatural combat. But it’s also distinctly the second chapter in a fairly complicated story. If you want to go in prepared, Ne Zha is currently streaming on Peacock, streaming free on Tubi with ads, and available for rental or purchase on Amazon, Apple TV, and other digital platforms.