10 Highest Grossing Movies That STILL Surprise Us

10. Ne Zha 2

Let's kick things off with the most recent film on this list - a movie that, despite having made zero cultural imprint in the West, is currently the fifth highest-grossing film of all time.

Ne Zha 2 is a Chinese animated fantasy sequel, whose predecessor grossed an impressive $742.7 million worldwide back in 2019. And while China's booming cinema market made it likely that Ne Zha 2 would perform even better, did anyone anticipate it to gross over $2 billion, blowing past both Avengers: Infinity War and Star Wars: The Force Awakens in the process?

It's all the more impressive given that more than 98% of the film's grosses have been from the Chinese market alone, and yet, unless you're a keen follower of the global box office, there's a good chance you've never even heard of Ne Zha 2.

Again, it speaks to not only the film's quality and status as a pop-culture phenomenon, but also China's growing influence in the film industry.

All the same, considering that Ne Zha 2 is the only non-Hollywood production in the top 50 highest-grossing movies of all time, its performance defies any sort of straight-forward categorisation.