How pet sessions made ‘Zootopia 2’ a phenomenon in China

Launched globally on November 26th, Zootopia 2 became the highest-grossing foreign film of all time in China. On the morning of last Monday, the 1st, The box office monitoring website Maoyan recorded a collection of 1.95 billion yuan, around 275.6 million dollars, in the first six days of the film’s showing in Chinese territory. With its success, the animation alone generated 95% of all box office sales in the country last weekend.

The franchise Zootopia It was already much loved by the Chinese, who made the first film, from 2016, the most popular foreign animation in China. For the new film, a peculiar — and quite adorable — strategy was taken by cinemas across the country to promote the release: selling special screenings that allow pets to enter.

In some rooms, hygiene items such as wet wipes, diapers and special mats were even made available to collect feces and urine at the end of the session. In Shanghai, a cinema reserved seats to avoid fights between dogs. In Qingdao, sessions were organized only for dogs of the same breed, including Samoyeds.

The reception of Zootopia 2 in China it is an outlier, as the entry of foreign films into the country has been made difficult since the United States announced the increase in tariffs on products from the Asian giant. On the other hand, the Chinese make it difficult for American products to enter their territory, including Hollywood films. The measure taken by the Chinese government contributed to the appreciation of national cinema, which in 2025 reached a historic milestone by making Ne Zha 2 the highest-grossing animation in the world, beating Funny Mind 2from Pixar.