People walk out of a movie screening room at a cinema in Kunming, southwest China's Yunnan Province, Feb. 3, 2025. (Photo by Peng Yikai/Xinhua)

Chinese ticketing platform Maoyan has further revised its forecast for "Ne Zha 2," projecting the animated blockbuster will reach 14.25 billion yuan (about 1.99 billion U.S. dollars) in total earnings in China.

The new estimate, announced Monday night, would position the Chinese feature as the highest-grossing animated film in global box office history, and potentially place it among the top seven highest-grossing films of all time across all categories globally.

The revised projection came just one day after Maoyan had raised its domestic box office forecast for the film to over 12 billion yuan -- up from its estimate of 10.8 billion yuan on Feb. 6. As the first Chinese release expected to cross the 10-billion-yuan threshold, the film is a milestone for Chinese cinema.