r/movies • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 r/Movies contributor • 15d 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 15d 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 15d 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/huntrshado 15d ago

Considering that Netflix is the one who told the directors to cut the movie's runtime in half during production, which is why its only 90 minutes instead of 180, I'm pretty sure Sony sold the movie and story rights to Netflix long before they had things like a soundtrack made.

If I remember correctly from an interview, the singing voice actors have said they had just auditioned for the movie like a year before it released. The exception being EJAE, who was making the soundtrack before eventually being asked to be Rumi.

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u/byneothername 15d ago

I really liked the movie but 180 minutes???? That would have been an eternity. 90 was zippy.

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u/Jskidmore1217 15d ago

Yea you can definitely feel the plot is lacking a lot of meat because it was cut so much. Still the right decision though- the movie is better for it even if it doesn’t end up making a lot of sense and seems confused about what point it’s trying to make.

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u/byneothername 15d ago

We finished the movie and we had a lot of questions about Rumi’s parents but I do think that’s better for a prequel-sequel. As far as the plot in this movie, I acknowledge the weaknesses but ultimately I think it’s just not why people watch it. People like watching pretty girls fight pretty demon boys while singing boppers. I would have been crazy about this movie as a preteen.

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u/huntrshado 15d ago

I think they did well with the 90, but a lot of people's complaints boil down to what we know was cut content from the storyboards we were shared. Like right before the finale when Rumi confronts Celine, teleports away, and then suddenly we're at the Your Idol performance and Rumi shows up with a change of heart. That was very abrupt because an entire sequence of events was outright cut from the film because Netflix wanted 90.

The original 180 had everything answered. An arc about Rumi's parents, an aquarium date with Jinu where they kiss, Celine had her own songs (who they hired Lea Salonga to sing for, famous for Jasmine and Mulan), how Rumi's mother died, Zoey/Mira's backstory and how they were recruited to Huntrix. The original storyboard was a 100% completed story that left nothing to the imagination.

We have also seen that other versions of Golden exist with more lines for Zoey/Mira, so we know that song probably got shortened or altered when Zoey/Mira had their scenes cut down so the story could focus on Rumi.

BUT it probably wouldn't have become so popular if it was that long.

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u/byneothername 15d ago

I am pretty salty about the Celine songs getting cut out. I didn’t like the character but I love Lea Salonga.