Netflix‘s latest animation marvel is now also its very-first box office blockbuster. KPop Demon Hunters, releasing on the global OTT streamer on June 20, has now moved on to dominate the North American box office space as well. Having recently become the second-most-watched Netflix flick of all time, the unstoppable Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans directorial also appears to be the biggest box office winner this weekend.
An exclusive sing-along version of the hit animated musical landed in theatres for a limited run on August 23. Although Netflix hasn’t announced official grosses for the film, estimates from rival studios suggested that KPop Demon Hunters had pulled ahead of the original horror spectacle Weapons, with projected earnings of $18 million to $20 million on Saturday and Sunday.
KPop Demons Hunters coming for Hollywood’s crown on Netflix, US box office
With 1,750 screens paying the much-loved film, which boasts a voice cast of Arden Cho, Ahn Hyo Seop, May Hong, Daniel Dae Kim, Ji Young Yoo, Yunjin Kim, Ken Jeong and Lee Byung Hun, the Netflix masterpiece has already slipped far ahead of the platform’s Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. Reports, citing sources privy to the numbers, also firmly asserted that the animated blockbuster registered roughly 1,150 sold-out shows.
According to Variety, KPop Demon Hunters’ theatre-count notably doubled the 2022 film’s one-week numbers, which made for the best theatrical release for a Netflix pre-streaming movie. At the time, the Benoit Blanc thriller’s phenomenal launch over the Thanksgiving holiday raked in about $15 million at the US box office.
Glass Onion, however, wasn’t the only Hollywood flick it toppled over. Beyond the Netflix competition, KPop Demon Hunters also hit it out against Weapons, which was originally expected to soar to the top. Its estimated box office gross is looking at a promising $15.6 million from 3,631 North American theatres in the film’s third weekend.
KPop Demon Hunters box office collection to expand Netflix audience
What’s particularly striking is that the K-pop-meets-animation marvel has recorded such a milestone two months after its OTT debut. Unlike other theatrical premieres, it bears no CinemaScore, and is simply “pop entertainment at its best,” as aptly said by analyst David A Gross of Franchise Entertainment Research.
Despite it being “one of the slowest weekends of the years as we head into the final week and a half of the summer,” as per senior Comscore analyst Paul Dergarabedian, KPop Demon Hunters’ extremely brief theatrical stop is all about driving the audience back to Netflix.
According to Netflix Tudum Top 10 Most Popular Movies (Global – All time) rankings based on total views in the first 91 days of release, KPop Demon Hunters sits just below Red Notice, starring Ryan Reynolds, Gal Gadot and Dwayne Johnson, having amassed 21,05,00,000 views. It is the only animated spectacle in the Top 10 list.
While those unstoppable numbers are only expected to grow, Netflix is fully doubling down on K-pop mania to bring in even bigger numbers with its sing-along version’s release slated for Monday (US time).