‘Zootopia 2’ Passes the ‘Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith’ at the Domestic Box Office

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While Disney’s Zootopia was a huge success, earning over $1 billion globally, it often feels overlooked compared to other major animated hits from the last decade. That’s why the announcement of Zootopia 2 felt surprising – but it shows Disney’s continued power. The sequel has already almost doubled the original film’s worldwide earnings! Recently, Zootopia 2 surpassed a popular Star Wars movie at the domestic box office, earning $414.7 million compared to $414.3 million for Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith.

It’s remarkable how well Zootopia 2 has performed overseas, earning $1.3 billion of its $1.8 billion worldwide total. In comparison, Revenge of the Sith (2005) had a more even split between domestic and international earnings, with $491.2 million coming from international markets. The new sequel’s numbers are also similar to the original Zootopia, which made $682.5 million internationally and $341.2 million domestically, for a total of $1 billion.

The Power of International Numbers

Hollywood is increasingly focused on attracting audiences in international markets. Disney, through both its theatrical releases and the Disney+ streaming service, is making more of its films available in more countries, often releasing them there sooner than in the US. The Avatar franchise perfectly illustrates this trend – all three films have earned two to three times more money internationally than they have domestically. While some American viewers haven’t embraced Avatar’s popularity and cultural significance, its global success – earning $2.1 billion internationally compared to $785 million domestically for the first film – clearly demonstrates its widespread appeal.

Releasing movies internationally is generally positive for both the entertainment industry and viewers, but it can also create challenges. In some countries, content featuring LGBTQ+ themes or characters is prohibited, requiring studios to make changes to their films to get them shown in theaters. While some studios comply with these requests, others, like Marvel with their film Eternals, have chosen not to edit their content and therefore haven’t released the movie in certain locations.

Disney’s ‘Star Wars’ Has Struggled Internationally


Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

The first six Star Wars movies – including the original and prequel trilogies – were distributed by 20th Century Fox. Interestingly, unlike Avatar, Star Wars films generally earn less money internationally than in the United States. While the nine live-action Star Wars films have collectively made billions worldwide, there’s a clear pattern: they tend to perform better in domestic markets than overseas.

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As a lifelong movie fan, I’ve always found the international box office performance of Star Wars films fascinating. Take A New Hope, for example – it made a great $461 million here in the US, but only $314.3 million overseas. It wasn’t until the prequels that Star Wars started earning more internationally than domestically. Rogue One really started to change things, coming within $8 million of its US earnings and pushing the total over a billion dollars worldwide. Then you have Solo, which had a huge international opening, but ultimately made less overseas ($179.1 million) than it did in the US ($213.8 million). It’s interesting – in China, they even dropped the Star Wars name altogether and just called it “Ranger Solo”!

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2026-02-12 04:17