The $1.9B 2025 movie hit that made over a billion more than Superman reinforces the idea the DC Universe could benefit particularly from carrying on down one path it’s already set up. Superman has kicked off the DC Universe timeline to considerable critical acclaim, though its box office results were a way off the superhero genre’s highest movie earnings.

Indeed, Superman made almost four times less than the highest grossing film of 2025 thus far, which is fascinating to note given the iron-clad grip the superhero genre has had in previous years when it comes to financial earnings. That said, this film’s almost $2 billion success suggests DC’s on-screen efforts in one particular direction may be especially wise in the present-day landscape.

2025’s Highest-Grossing Movie Outdid Superman’s Box Office By A Huge Margin (& That’s A Good Thing)

2025 was largely a lower-grossing year for moviedom, with Superman‘s $615 million worldwide box office (box office numbers via Box Office Mojo) being one of the highest grosses of the year, despite it coming in under many other superhero film’s takings. That said, two movies have broken the $1 billion mark thus far – with one being the live-action Lilo & Stitch, and the other being the animated Ne Zha 2, which is now one of the five highest-grossing movies of all time.

Lilo & Stitch‘s just over a billion box office results are certainly impressive, but Ne Zha 2 is even more noteworthy when it comes to this area, with the film having made $1.9 billion worldwide – a number that exceeds the results of all but three of the MCU’s movies (namely Avengers: Endgame, Avengers: Infinity War, and Spider-Man: No Way Home), and that is almost four times more than Superman made this same year.

This is striking for a few reasons – not least because it suggests a move that DC Studios has made more recently could pay off in a major way. With Ne Zha 2 being a beautifully animated film that is based around the 16th century novel Investiture of the Gods, its success underlines the potential of both animated films and animated adaptations that aren’t afraid to play with the source material at hand.

As such, the fact the DCU has already begun setting up some animated releases like the experimental Dynamic Duo movie seems to bode well. In terms of theatrical releases, neither DC nor Marvel have experimented much with bringing animated releases to the big screen, and Ne Zha 2‘s immense success reiterates a lesson the Spider-Verse movies also put forth: that there is a huge audience for well-put-together animated movies.

Why The DC Universe Should Learn From Ne Zha 2

Historically, animated movies have often been considered something more of a risk than live-action films, especially within the superhero sphere – partially because these stylized movies are unfortunately sometimes considered to be only for children. However, the almost $2 billion box office success of Ne Zha 2 certainly shows this isn’t inherently the case.

Ne Zha 2 is also perhaps a perfect example of how to handle a sequel in a way that resonates with audiences even more than the original, and a prime example of the kind of unique visual spectacle that animated releases can provide. As such, there’s much that franchises like the DC Universe can and arguably should take away from the highest-grossing movie of 2025 – especially if it means DC could get animated films on par with the Spider-Verse films.