In China, Disney's "Zootopia 2" is on a box-office roll. Chinese state media assessed it as a positive sign for U.S.-China relations. Even amid tensions between the two countries, the market and consumer choices still show the possibility of cooperation and mutual benefit, and analysts said it symbolically reveals that exchanges between the two countries in culture and services can fully produce results.
According to China Central Television (CCTV) and others on the 17th, "Zootopia 2" set the all-time highest box-office record among overseas animated films in China just five days after its release there. Nearly half of the movie's worldwide box-office revenue is said to have come from the Chinese market.
On the back of its popularity, related industries are gaining momentum, with some 70 brand collaborations taking place in mainland China. Orders for Zootopia-related merchandise are booked through April next year, and reports said the number of people seeking to buy pit vipers resembling "Gary," the snake character in the film, is increasing. Zootopia character installations could also be seen in Beijing's bustling districts and at major shopping malls across the city.
The state-run Global Times, in an editorial the same day, reported the box-office news and evaluated Zootopia 2's success in China as a symbolic case for U.S.-China economic and trade relations. Noting that Zootopia 2's box office in China surpassed the North American market, the paper emphasized that the Chinese market has moved beyond a mere supporting role to become a key market that determines a film's profitability and global strategy.
The Global Times said, "With a population of 1.4 billion, the Chinese market has the capacity to continuously absorb high-quality content, and this vast market with more than 90,000 screens has enormous box-office potential," adding, "Audiences are willing to choose works with high quality, solid storytelling, outstanding production values, and respect for local ethnic cultures. This is a solid base of demand for international high-quality content to enter China."
The Global Times also criticized the United States for focusing only on China's goods trade surplus with the U.S., pointing out that in services trade such as film, the U.S. runs a surplus instead. It argued that measures pressuring China have dampened U.S. services exports to China, causing an imbalance in the trade structure. "The more the U.S. and China cooperate in the economy and trade, the greater the mutual benefits, and the logic that if one side benefits the other must necessarily lose does not hold," the paper said, adding, "Rather, U.S. measures have reduced exports to China and even restricted channels to balance the trade structure through services exports."
In addition, the Global Times said that if only a stable trade environment is created, U.S. services can succeed in the Chinese market. "In more areas, China has demand for high-quality supplies from the United States," it said. "The path to opening the Chinese market lies not in pressure and restrictions but in mutually beneficial cooperation. The most effective way to resolve structural imbalances is not to treat the market as a battlefield, but to expand institutional openness and increase the supply capacity of products and services so that more high-quality U.S. products and services can enter the Chinese market."