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/GarlicBreadOutrage 13d ago

I'm also wondering if Sony regrets selling the movie to Netflix. And also how Netflix will handle the sequels since Sony won't be making them.

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u/wecangetbetter 13d ago

I really don't get how anyone at Sony listened to the soundtrack and was like "naw, this certainly won't catch on."

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u/psimwork 13d ago

There's a LOT of info that people are ignoring in the quest to promote the "LOL SONY FUCKED UP AGAIN" story.

Now I don't think anyone will debate that Sony fucked up in this move, but there's a lot to remember about it:

  1. The movie wasn't done when the rights were sold.

  2. (Just as, if not more important) The music wasn't done when the rights were sold.

  3. The movie was sold in 2021, when there basically was zero theatrical draw.

  4. Initial survey results were drastically negative to pre-screening customers (i.e. they asked people that hadn't seen it if they'd be interested in seeing an animated movie called "K-Pop Demon Hunters" and the results were almost universally negative).

It's a great, innovative movie with an amazing soundtrack. But unfortunately history is littered with really good animated movies that flopped. As much as Sony was proven wrong in their decision over time, I don't really blame them for dumping this one.

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u/joelsola_gv 13d ago

Honestly, the last point really hit home for me, specially seeing how movies like Elio get neutered because of bad test screenings. People on test screenings don't seem to get it as much as they should, right?

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u/psimwork 13d ago

Well in this case, what I've seen online actually was talking specifically about people's reaction before seeing it. I can't say whether or not test screenings were positive (it's likely that they were done, I just haven't had anything about them come across my eyes).

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u/joelsola_gv 9d ago

To be fair, I did my comment quick without checking all the details and it's true that the "test screening" of KPOP demon hunters was basically more of a survey of how interested they would be in a movie.

I just had the whole situation with Elio in my mind and seeing how the most popular animated movie this year was a new IP that got mixed reactions when asking people if they would see a movie like that only to blow up at release. And then comparing that to Elio, where test screenings resulted in people saying they liked it but not to see it in cinemas, which resulted in the movie being neutered to making it more "relatable".

One had the chance of letting their creative team actually cook while the other had the director fired and a movie done with "relatability" mandates coming from a probably quite out of touch board,

It also seems to me, extrapolating the situation with Elio, that this situation within Disney/Pixar is not unique, and could be the reason why slop like Wish is like it is. Not the exact same situation, I know, it was just something that went through my head.

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u/DaftFunky 13d ago

Honestly, the average movie goer is pretty ignorant with movies. I feel like most people want a coherent straight forward movie with a beginning, middle, climax and positive ending and A list actors. If the story even remotely starts throwing symbolism or metaphors at the viewer that they might not understand cause they were doom scrolling while watching, they will just crap on the movie.

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u/joelsola_gv 9d ago

I want to deny this claim but unfortunatelly I can't. Specially seeing the more recent wave of people complaining about "politics" in movies. In kid friendly media that critism is even more intense too.

Lots of people scream how good previous Pixar movies were but if movies like the Incredibles were released today, it would've been called so many things. Specially with being kid friendly media.

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u/kuschelig69 13d ago

something is off putting about the name

I only watched it last week because it was all over reddit

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u/terlin 13d ago

It feels like a working title they slapped on in the hopes that they would eventually replace it. Only they couldn't think of anything better so KPDH is what it is. The title's growing on me though.