Dear Gossips,   

Over the last few months, everyone’s been leaving room in the Best Animated Feature category in the Oscar race for Zootopia 2 and the movie just got a massive boost at the box office with a huge Thanksgiving open - $156 million domestic and $400 million overseas for a worldwide total of $556 million, a new record for an animated film. And a lot of that came from… China. 

 

In China alone, Zootopia 2 brought in $272 million which, really, is the dream for Hollywood studios who’ve been chasing the Chinese market for decades. More often than not, that ambition isn’t fulfilled. But Zootopia 2 was as close to a sure thing in China as it gets, because the first movie was so popular there in 2016, a surprise smash hit. 

 

I only realised this during the pandemic lockdown, when I started watching more and more Chinese livestreams, and kept hearing Shakira’s “Try Everything” from the first movie. The song popped up again just this summer when Liu Yuning, one of China’s most famous livestreamers who is now a super successful singer and actor, played it during one of his drama promotions for The Prisoner of Beauty. 

 

Shanghai Disneyland is also the only Disney resort with a Zootopia-themed land because Chinese people are so obsessed with it. And, apparently, for a while there Chinese women were obsessed with Nick Wilde, the fox played by Jason Bateman, LOL. Actually, not just Chinese women – Jason was asked about this on the press tour, what he thinks of the Nick Wilde thirst. 

@vt

Jason Bateman is confused why people think Nick Wilde is HOT 😂 Zootropolis 2 is in cinemas from 28th November! #jasonbateman #zootopia #nickwilde #judyhopps #disney #Zootropolis

♬ original sound - VT - VT
 

Cruise through the comments underneath that post which should confirm that, well, a lot of people want to bang Nick. 

Back to Zootopia in China, though, and how the sequel was very likely greenlit on how the original performed there. Now that Chinese audiences showed up big for Zootopia 2, it’s probably a no-brainer that a third installment is coming to satisfy not the western market but the eastern one. 

Yours in gossip, 

Lainey 

Photo credits: Ash Knotek/ Shutterstock

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