{"id":172641,"date":"2025-08-24T21:15:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-24T21:15:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/172641\/"},"modified":"2025-08-24T21:15:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T21:15:10","slug":"kpop-demon-hunters-sing-along-gives-netflix-first-box-office-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/172641\/","title":{"rendered":"‘KPop Demon Hunters Sing-Along’ Gives Netflix First Box Office Win"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tIs the animated movie sensation KPop Demon Hunters<\/a><\/a> a unicorn or the beginning of a beautiful new friendship between Netflix and theater owners?<\/p>\n

\n\tMost in Hollywood are betting on the former despite the fact that a special two-day sing-along event <\/a>of the hit animated is grossing a chart-topping $18 million to $20 million from 1,700 North American theaters, the highest showing of any movie over the Aug. 22-24 weekend, according to exhibition sources and rival studios with access to certain data. Since Netflix \u2014 which has had a turbulent relationship with exhibitors<\/a> \u2014 doesn\u2019t report box offices, no one will ever know the actual number. On Sunday, Netflix declined comment. <\/p>\n

\n\tThat means that New Line and Warner Bros.\u2019 horror sensation Weapons<\/a> will be listed as the official winner of the Aug. 22-24 frame with $15.6 million from 3,631 cinemas in its third outing for a horrifyingly impressive global cume of nearly $200 million, or $199.4 million, through Sunday. <\/p>\n

\n\tEither way, the sing-along was a brilliant move on the part of Netflix in continuing to promote Demon Hunters and keep its subscribers happy, as well as make a play for new subs (the film is virtually guaranteed to spawn a franchise).<\/p>\n

\n\tSince debuting in June on the streamer, Kpop Demon Hunters transformed into a cultural phenomenon. It\u2019s within shouting distance of becoming No. 1 on\u00a0Netflix<\/a>\u2019s all-time list of most watched English-language films <\/a>after already soaring to the top of the animated list, while its soundtrack has spent several weeks in the top 10 of the Billboard 200 chart, with several of its songs, led by \u201cGolden,\u201d also shooting to the top of the charts<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tOnly AMC Theatres, the country and world\u2019s largest circuit, refused to play the sing-along in keeping with its general policy of not playing movies that are in the home. Regal Cinemas and Cinemark Theatres \u2014 the country\u2019s two largest circuits behind AMC Theatres \u2014 along with Alamo Drafthouse and numerous other circuits were all game to grab a piece of the action, considering the summer box office is ending on a low note<\/a>. Sources say cinemas were only allowed access to the sing-along on Saturday and Sunday, prompting some to speculate that Netflix could also be using the two-day theatrical event as a marketing tool in advance of dropping the sing-along version on the service (to date, there\u2019s been no such announcement).<\/p>\n

\n\tThe film\u2019s clever, original storyline centers on the adventures of Huntr\/x, a trio comprised of K-pop superstars Rumi (Arden Cho), Mira (May Hong) and Zooey (Ji-young Yoo) who use their secret identities as badass demon hunters to protect their fans from an ever-present supernatural threat. Together, they must face their biggest enemy yet \u2014 an irresistible rival boy band of demons in disguise. Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans directed the animated feature for Sony Pictures Animation, based on a screenplay by Danya Jimenez, Hannah McMechan, Kang and Appelhans. The project ultimately landed at Netflix as part of a larger deal with Sony Pictures.<\/p>\n

\n\tNetflix movie chief Lin recently told THR that Netflix is always \u201clooking for powerful new stories<\/a>, refreshing new voices and daring new approaches\u201d in their films. \u201cKPDH\u00a0is a perfect example of this approach,\u201d he says, adding that he and Netflix\u2019s head of animation, Hannah Minghella, are \u201cthrilled to be supporting Maggie and Chris as filmmakers and Kristine Belson and her team at Sony Animation\u201d as their studio partner (Minghella used to work with Belson at Sony).<\/p>\n

\n\tApple Original Films also made box office<\/a> headlines over the weekend as Joseph Kosinski\u2019s sleeper summer blockbuster F1: The Original Movie zoomed past the $600 million mark globally to finish Sunday with a global cume of $603.4 million. Unlike Netflix, Apple is now working closely with theater owners in committing to release select titles a traditional theatrical run, such as F1, which has become Brad Pitt\u2019s biggest film of all time. It\u2019s also the top-grossing sports pic of all time, according the filmmakers.<\/p>\n

\n\tWithout its own distribution apparatus in place, Apple must rely on third-party partners to release its titles. In the case of F1, it was Warners. At the beginning of the year, the studio\u2019s film empire was badly struggling but has since made a remarkable comeback under the leadership of Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy. Movies feeding the boom include A Minecraft Movie, Sinners and, most recently, Weapons (it also gets to take a certain amount of credit for F1\u2018s success, which it helped market in addition to distributing). No one could have predicted that F1 would earn virtually as much as DC Studios and Warner Bros.\u2019 Superman, which crossed the $600 million mark on Friday. The superhero pic, directed by DC Studios co-head James Gunn, finished Sunday with $604.5 million. <\/p>\n

\n\tOverseas, Weapons earned another $13.2 million for a foreign tally of $83.5. It\u2019s domestic total is $115.9 million.<\/p>\n

\n\tAccording to Comscore\u2019s domestic chart \u2014 which doesn\u2019t include Demon Hunters \u2014 Disney\u2019s Freakier Friday held at No. 2 in its third outing with $9.2 million from 3,675 locations for a global cume of $112.3 million.<\/p>\n

\n\tMarvel and Disney\u2019s The Fantastic Four: First Steps came in third domestically with $5.9 million for tepid worldwide tally of $490.1 million. <\/p>\n

\n\tUniversal and DreamWorks Animation\u2019s The Bad Guys 2 rounded out the top five with $5.1 million froom 3,288 theaters. Its global haul is $149.1 million.<\/p>\n

\n\tAmong new nationwide offerings, Focus Features\u2019 specialty pic Honey Don\u2019t! opened in eighth place with $3 million from 1,300 locations. While that it was in line with expectations, it\u2019s still a poor start for a film directed by Ethan Coen. Starring Margaret Qualley from a script he wrote with Tricia Cooke, his wife, the film follows a small-town private investigator trying to solve a series of deaths tied to a mysterious church. Aubrey Plaza, Charlie Day, Billy Eichner and Chris Evans\u00a0co-star.<\/p>\n

\n\tBleecker Street<\/a>\u2018s indie pic Relay,\u00a0a gritty corporate whistleblowing thriller\u00a0from director David MacKenzie, also struggled in its debut. Starring\u00a0Riz Ahmed<\/a>,\u00a0Lily James<\/a>\u00a0and Sam Worthington, the moved opened in tenth place with $1.9 million from 1,483 theaters. <\/p>\n

\n\tIn what may have been a case of bad timing, A24\u2019s debut of the English-language version of Chinese animated blockbuster Ne Zha 2 fell flat, debuted to just $1.5 million from 2,208 theaters to fall outside of top 10 chart. Not that the movie is hurting overall \u2014 the family film is the top-grossing title of 2025 so far with more than $2.2 billion in worldwide ticket sales. <\/p>\n

\n\tBox office pundits say the dubbed version, voiced by Michelle Yeoh, was likely dinged by Demon Hunters. But the bigger reason could be that the original version of the film already played in North America, earning more than $21 million in earlier this year. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Is the animated movie sensation KPop Demon Hunters a unicorn or the beginning of a beautiful new friendship…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":172642,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[207,171,30075,4659,67,132,68,9826],"class_list":{"0":"post-172641","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-box-office","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-kpop-demon-hunters","11":"tag-netflix","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us","15":"tag-weapons"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115085818399083330","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172641\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}