Critics Get Wrong Why 2025’s Biggest Movie ‘Flops’ in the U.S.

The box office figures are in, and it’s official: Ne Zha 2 is a flop. Not worldwide, of course — it’s already the biggest ever animated film in history and the fifth highest grossing movie ever — only the A24 dub version that opened in theaters on August 22 has fallen short. Film commentators like Jeff Yang in the Washington Post have come out with largely the same explanation for Ne Zha 2‘s underwhelming performance of only $1.5 million across 2200 screens: it’s too Chinese.

Now, to that, most of you have one of two responses. First, what is Ne Zha 2? Good question! Read my article from earlier this year and that should catch you up. For those already familiar with Ne Zha 2, I imagine your response might be something more like, “Wait, A24 rereleased this movie in theaters with an English dub last week?”

Which brings us to that all-too-important, all-too-underdiscussed aspect of the film market. Namely that it’s a market, and like any market, the effectiveness of advertising is not to be understated, especially for a new, niche product. And, to be blunt, A24 was not the right distributor for Ne Zha 2. At the risk of being obvious, A24 isn’t famous for distributing animated family films. They’re not even famous for distributing anime films for adults. Companies like Crunchyroll do that. Incidentally, Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle comes out in theaters on September 12, with special screenings on September 9 for subscribers.

One reason why I’m bringing up Infinity Castle is because Jeff Yang and others note how Ne Zha 2 has vastly under-performed the K-Pop-themed anime KPop Demon Hunters that went into theaters the day after the Chinese movie. What’s they miss is that KPop Demon Hunters is a Netflix film specifically released theatrically as a special engagement sing-along. All of which is to say that, contrary to critics’ hopes, movies don’t generally succeed at the box office because they’re good, they succeed because they have an audience. Some are more niche than others, some have better advertising than others but it’s all about cultivating and finding that audience. I still maintain that Lightyear (2022) failed mainly because of the bizarre marketing campaign that mostly focused on the convoluted tie-in to the Toy Story universe and a lesbian kiss that was on-screen for maybe half a second.

A24 may have theater access and is a well-known brand name, but that alone doesn’t get people to buy things. Did you know that A24 released a book about appropriate arty films to show kids? Of course you don’t. I only even know that this book exists because I read a blog making fun of it once. While it’s often an industry expression that there’s no such thing as bad publicity, I’d argue that an exception can be made for delayed bad publicity. The think-pieces about Ne Zha 2‘s failure due to its unusual Asian genre storytelling only came out after Ne Zha 2 failed in America, providing a comforting reminder that even if China beats us at everything else, they’ll never invade the American cinemaplex.

The convenient timing of KPop Demon Hunters allows critics to sidestep accusations of racism. “No, we love Asian anime, it’s just that Ne Zha 2‘s specifically Chinese genre doesn’t work.” However, what’s frustrating about Yang and others holding KPop Demon Hunters up as a paragon — apart from the film basking in stolen valor for the marketing success — is that, contrary to what the title might imply, KPop Demon Hunters isn’t a Korean movie. It was produced and voiced almost entirely by Americans, albeit Asian-Americans. That’s not to say it’s not authentic in a certain way. For example, Kung Fu Panda was a classic “oriental-styled” movie managing an authentic Chinese vibe, to the point that the (original) movie was a huge influence on the development of the Chinese film industry. But any franchise with Jack Black as the frontman can’t plausibly claim to be authentic Chinese culture.

Likewise, Kpop Demon Hunters has a great vibe and through it, paradoxically, Asian-Americans can benefit from native access to American distribution networks while also plausibly claiming to be outsiders capable of whispering true authenticity to ignorant American audiences. Yang’s depiction of KPop Demon Hunters’ as authentic to Asian culture is especially irritating because the draw of the film is its fidelity to K-Pop culture and fandom at large. This fidelity is not Asian-specific, fans come from all demographics and are disproportionately obsessive. You may not personally be aware of the nationwide BTS Movies Week festival taking place from September 24 – October 5 but rest assured. The K-Pop fans know, even if it’s not getting written up in the Washington Post.

I fully agree with Yang, though, when he writes that the Chinese film industry is large enough not to need to pander to Americans. It’s not clear that the reverse is true, though. One of the few bright spots for Hollywood in China remains animated films, because local distribution firms have far more latitude in terms of the local voice talent they hire, and how they market them, with ample lead time and they’re well-funded enough they can get serious penetration. People knew Inside Out 2 was coming to theaters in China long before it actually happened. It wasn’t a Ne Zha 2-in-America type of situation where people were only finding out the movie existed after it already failed, and it certainly wasn’t a project the local distributors tried to speedrun in a few months after the best publicity window had already come and gone.

And indeed, another major cause of this Ne Zha 2 situation is that the movie was already theatrically released in the United States, with subtitles, back in February, when it made around $15 million, mostly on the strength of the sort of niche market consumers A24 usually targets. Though not formally available for streaming in the United States, anyone who has wanted to watch it probably has done so by now. The idea of an English dub starring Michelle Yeoh, while an interesting one, required a radically different approach – one beyond A24’s wheelhouse.

And it’s probably worth noting for anyone following Chinese film, or even Chinese animation specifically, Ne Zha 2 is already old news. Its records are being broken by Nobody, a film far more closely aligned with the “hero’s journey” mold that Yang refers to in his piece as if it were a universally applicable theory for creating popular media rather than a tired cliche of American culture beloved of American film executives. Any explanation for how Nobody will inevitably fail overseas will have to provide a more compelling explanation than just: “It’s the distribution, stupid.”

We currently live in an era of media consumption where we’re expected to know about obscure Batman characters like White Rabbit,. The reason the mainstream American media market isn’t familiar with Chinese mythology isn’t because it’s strange, or structured in too complicated a fashion. It’s because they don’t want to. And commentators unaffiliated with such markets should be aiming to educate people on this topic, not coming up with excuses for why such a task is impossible.