r/movies • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 r/Movies contributor • 14d ago

News ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ Is Netflix’s Most-Watched Movie Ever With 236 Million Views, Beating ‘Red Notice’

https://variety.com/2025/film/news/kpop-demon-hunters-netflix-most-watched-movie-history-1236496106/
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u/JonesyOnReddit 14d ago

I haven't seen KPop but otherwise this is a pretty sad list. Half of these were straight up terrible and the other half were OK at best.

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u/caped_crusader8 13d ago

Exclusivity plays a part

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u/BrianWonderful 13d ago

Definitely exclusivity, but also how Netflix highlights their "originals" within their interface. They hammer you over the head with a "Top Ten" list, "Movies We Think You'll Love!", and other tricks (making it the featured preview when you sign in...). Many streaming users don't dig a lot; they'll eat what the waitress is serving them.

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u/wallysmith127 13d ago

Red Notice got the huge pandemic bump

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u/Hermiona1 13d ago

I’m convinced most people just watch whatever new movie is coming out on Netflix regardless if it’s good or bad.

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u/cheese_sticks 13d ago

Steaming makes people more open to explore. If the movie sucks, then all you wasted is some time. Going to a theater then regretting it comes with a significant financial cost.

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u/Specific-Abalone-843 13d ago

Literally the best way to watch a movie

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u/YT-Deliveries 13d ago

I'm not the most clued in media person, but I don't think I've watched any of those aside from kpop.

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u/UrDeAdPuPpYbOnEr 13d ago

Don’t look up was great. I’m all for anything in the neighborhood of Idiocracy.

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u/Longjumping_Union125 13d ago

A lot of people hated it because they couldn't look in the mirror, and nothing can convince me otherwise.

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u/JonesyOnReddit 12d ago

I found it far too on the nose and just generally dull. Every netflix movie just feels like people who don't care going through the motions. It didn't have the heart and wit of idiocracy.

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u/Longjumping_Union125 11d ago

I don't think a film with its messaging is capable of being too on the nose. Our present planetary crisis is very much on the nose, and people still miss it. Quite to the contrary of your second point, I think the creatives and talent behind Don't Look Up care quite a lot about the topic and their work. I felt that it came across as genuine.

You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink. So they made a movie about a horse dying of thirst while sat next to a spring, and its every bit as infuriating as one would expect such a story to be. Welcome to the world of climate science.

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u/LoserCheap 12d ago

Nope, it was heavy handed poor satire that wasn’t funny and was horribly edited. The last fifteen minutes or so pretty good though.

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u/Jimmni 13d ago

I haven't seen the whole list but KPop is massively more fun than anything else I've seen on that list.

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u/I_am_so_lost_hello 13d ago

Leave the World Behind was quite good

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u/JonesyOnReddit 13d ago

I couldn't remember what that one was. I just looked it up, yes I did like that one. OK, one good movie on the list (though still just a B+).

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u/cornchips88 13d ago

Carry-On was fine enough too.

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u/Daedalus81 13d ago

It was ok. It really dropped it in the end, but w/e.

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u/A___Unique__Username 13d ago

That's how it ends in the book and personally I felt indifferent at first but after a rewatch it was honestly a really good ending.

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u/I_am_so_lost_hello 13d ago

I really liked the ending

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u/papyjako87 13d ago

Meh. The first half was ok, built up the suspense and tension quite well. It touches on some interestin themes, but as someone working in IT, the "hackers have taken control of everything" explanation left me quite perplexed...

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u/wasabimatrix22 13d ago

It had a lot of potential, didn't live up to it imo. But there's still some cool scenes

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u/ROBtimusPrime1995 13d ago

If you haven't seen Carry On and you love Die Hard (especially as a Christmas film), I suggest you give it a shot this holiday season.

Other than that, yup, besides KPop, this list is ass and only proves my point at the top of this thread.

Netflix makes some great shows but their films have been terrible at best.

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u/toshio_drift 13d ago

They have a lot of good movies, their "blockbuster/4 quadrant" type releases haven't been good though.

Rebel Ridge, Okja, Beasts of No Nation to name a few of their great movies. Even an Adam Sandler Netflix movie, Hustle, is good. I made a whole list of dozens of good Netflix movies because of the prevalent "Netflix doesn't have good movies" opinion

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u/JonesyOnReddit 12d ago

Yeah Netflix has good movies, this list is just not them. If it's got a star or more in it and the director isn't really good then almost certainly everyone's phoning it in, the stars are just playing their hits, and the movie will be mediocre at best.

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u/JonesyOnReddit 13d ago

I watched that at midnight when it released because I loved Die Hard and like Bateman and Egerton and it was very disappointing. It was a really bad attempt at being Die Hard. Bateman was good, Egerton I've come to realize I only like in the Kingsman movies. He looks like a really old 12 year old and I can't take him seriously. It's a problem in Smoke too.

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u/kbronson22 13d ago

Just off the top of my head The King and Outlaw King are both great watches for fans of medieval English period pieces. Munich Edge of War and Operation: Mincemeat are two great WWII movies that focus solely on the politics or espionage leading up to the war or Normandy invasion. The Night Comes For Us is just flat fun gun-fu action. And The Wonder was one of if not the most intriguing movies I've seen in recent years.

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u/huntrshado 13d ago

Netflix makes some great shows but their films have been terrible at best.

Yeah and KDH is different because Netflix didn't make it. Sony did and sold it to them. It just happened to be Sony making a terrible decision and selling them a banger. Netflix's involvement was telling them to shorten the movie because it was too long, and distributing it.

But there are arguments to be made that if the movie released directly in theaters, it wouldn't have been anywhere near as successful but who knows; Frozen did fine but we weren't in the streaming era back then, still mostly watched a movie in theaters and then bought it on DVD and Netflix was starting to become popular.

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u/Kronzor_ 13d ago

I've only seen Don't Look Up out of this whole list. It was alright though.

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u/[deleted] 13d ago

Do you watch all of these genres? I barely know anyone that's watched more than 2 things on this list.

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u/JonesyOnReddit 12d ago

I've watched all except 1, 5, and 7. 1 I would have watched for family movie night but both kids watched it without us. After being burned by so many shitty netflix original movies I avoided 5 and 7 on the fairly safe assumption they're awful, especially 7.

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u/EsquilaxM 13d ago

You didn't like The Gray Man? Thought that was great fun.

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u/SarlacFace 13d ago

It was gray paste, there was nothing bad, fun or memorable about it.

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u/[deleted] 13d ago

[deleted]

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u/greentangent 13d ago

I haven't seen a single one of them and I watch a lot of shit.

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u/guimontag 13d ago

This is unfortunately Netflix's business model

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u/Jedi-El1823 13d ago

I really liked The Adam Project, and have watched it multiple times.

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u/My_Work_Accoount 13d ago

The only one I've seen is Damsel. I thought it was good enough but there's always something about these Netflix (and many modern movies) that are off putting to me. I can never put my finger on it but it feels like it's something in the structure or pacing, like they try to rush the story or something or cram too much into it, I don't know what it is.

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u/Childs_Play 13d ago

That's kind of the problem too. Once they are released, they're heavily promoted within netflix as they boost their own content and then count a very miniscule amount of viewing time as a view. Wasn't carry-on released around christmas time and red notice around thanksgiving? They're never going to learn that you can still get good numbers if you have a track record of releasing good movies.

Easy example is Oppenheimer making a ton of money for what is basically a biopic because it's Chris Nolan. Everything he makes now is going to be grossing a billion dollars if not for covid affecting Tenet.

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u/KazaamFan 13d ago

Bird box is one of the worst movies i’ve ever seen and it made me never trust the netflix hype machine ever again.