This weekend marks the largest global opening of 2026 with Warner Bros. Wuthering Heights, Sony’s Goat, and MGM Studio’s Crime 101 topping the charts. According to Deadline, despite the success of these films, Disney is the first major motion picture studio to reach a $1 billion weekend in 2026.
Success of Zootopia 2 & Avatar: Fire & Ash
This success is in part due to the continued popularity ofZootopia 2 in global box offices. The film is currently in its 12th weekend of earning over $15 million. In total, the film has earned $1.82 billion, with only $420.6 million earned from domestic sales.
Released on Thanksgiving weekend 2025, Zootopia 2 dominated the box office from the jump with the biggest-ever global opening for an animated film, eventually becoming Walt Disney Animation’s highest-grossing movie ever and one of only two films released in 2025 to gross over $1 billion; the other was Disney’s live-action Lilo & Stitch.
It is now Walt Disney Animation’s highest-grossing movie ever, surpassing Frozen II (Pixar’s Inside Out 2 remains Disney’s highest-grossing animated film across studios), and became only one of two films released in 2025 to gross over $1 billion; the other was Disney’s live-action Lilo & Stitch.
Avatar: Fire and Ash is also still seeing success and will soon approach $400 million domestic with $1.459 billion after nine weekends in the box office.
The previous two films have enjoyed remarkable box office staying power. The original 2009 epic Avatar debuted to $77 million domestically and remained in first place for seven consecutive weekends, eventually climbing to $760 million in North America and $2.92 billion worldwide. The sequel also managed to hold onto the No. 1 spot for seven weekends and ended up earning $688 million domestically and $2.3 billion globally.
The film belongs to Disney-owned 20th Century Studios, allowing Disney to also grab the top three Motion Picture Association films of 2025, joining Zootopia 2 and Lilo & Stitch.
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