Hollywood is still a little shaken as theatergoers are a touch more finicky ever since the pandemic led to people staying home for months on end, stewing in the realization of how not-so sanitary theaters can be Now that we're mostly back to normal, though, with people going to theaters a fair bit more often, Hollywood still needs to be reminded that the film matters.
Not even a month in, Zootopia 2 surpassed a billion at the box office, which is kind of important for a couple reasons, firstly, it's the third film of the year to reach that milestone, with the live action Lilo & Stitch adaptation and Ne Zha 2 being the other two, it also holds another solid milestone of reaching that billion faster than any other animated PG film.
Zootopia 2 faltered a bit, falling in second place to Blumhouse's Five Nights At Freddy's 2, but it returned to the top spot during its third weekend. This milestone, obviously got a lot of attention with director Jared Bush taking the hit at explaining why aligators were nowhere to be seen while also confirming Kangaroos do, indeed, exist in the Zootopia universe, but things had to get cut and some animals were more important than others.
"We got close! We could only build a certain number of animals, and we had to prioritize. Same reason you don’t see kangaroos. But they definitely exist!"
Hollywood doesn't have much to worry about and just kinda needs to realize that theatergoers will turn out for good movies, but they need to actually put them out rather than consistantly churn out films that aren't as interesting to the public as they think it would be.
As for the future of Zootopia, a third one is absolutely on the docket, with a pipedream guest of Keanu Reeves as some sort of assassin. "I’m a huge John Wick fan. And my son has begged me to ask Keanu Reeves to play an assassin named “The Baba Llama” - and I can’t imagine a better cameo!"
Official blurb:
"In Walt Disney Animation Studios’ “Zootopia 2,” detectives Judy Hopps (voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin) and Nick Wilde (voiced by Jason Bateman) find themselves on the twisting trail of a mysterious reptile who arrives in Zootopia and turns the animal metropolis upside down. To crack the case, Judy and Nick must go undercover to unexpected new parts of town, where their growing partnership is tested like never before."