KPopping Netflix's Theatrical Stance
Rebecca Rubin
Wait a minute, who is that at the top of the box office charts this weekend? Is that... the company which doesn't believe in theatrical releases?!
In a box office twist, a film from the theatrical-averse Netflix appears to be No. 1 on North American charts. “Kpop Demon Hunters,” a sing-along version of the hit animated musical, is estimated to have earned $18 million to $20 million on Saturday and Sunday.
Netflix isn’t reporting grosses, but projections from rival studios and exhibitors would put ticket sales for “Kpop Demon Hunters” ahead of those for “Weapons,” which was expected to claim first place and looks to earn a strong $15.6 million from 3,631 North American theaters in its third weekend of release.
Because Netflix doesn't officially report such numbers – because again, as they've made abundantly clear over the years, they don't care about the theatrical element of the movie business – Weapons will "officially" come in first for the weekend, but everyone knows the real score. And it's a huge score for Netflix because KPop Demon Hunters was released on the streamer a couple months ago. In fact, it's apparently the second-most popular movie ever on Netflix. That undoubtedly led to Netflix being okay with the theatrical experiment here to see if they can keep the party rolling – undoubtedly with a push from Sony, whose animation studio actually made the movie (and who smartly aligned with Netflix around streaming distribution a few years ago).
And so KPop Demon Hunters suddenly appeared on 1,700 screens for one weekend only.1 As such, many of those showings were completely sold out. Again, for a movie which has been on Netflix for two months. And remains on Netflix.
And all of this despite the fact that AMC, the largest theater chain, refused to screen the movie. Why? Because it was already on Netflix! In hindsight, that was stupid. But that's pretty par for the AMC course.
The bigger question is if this continues Netflix's thaw when it comes to theatrical. I've long been on record as saying I believe that the company's next big backtrack will be on releasing their movies in theaters – at least some of them. And since I wrote that last year, they've had to cut a deal with Greta Gerwig to allow her to release her upcoming new Narnia movie on IMAX screens exclusively for a few weeks before the movie hits Netflix. And more recently, Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein was subject to a fan movement to ensure it would get a proper theatrical release – which it now is. And even more recently, Netflix lost a bidding war – despite apparently offering more money – for The Duffer Brothers, the creative talent they ushered in thanks to Stranger Things. Why? The key factor was said to be the fact that the Duffers wanted a theatrical component to any film projects they did (not the first time that has happened either). The David Ellison-owned Paramount is all about theatrical. Netflix? Not yet!
Again, it feels like all of the above plus this latest success with KPop is going to push Netflix to go against their theatrical stance in a real way. If nothing else, it's great marketing for their content. But it can also be a way to you know, make money if they're creative and clever about how they utilize theaters. And Netflix is nothing if not creative and clever!
Of course, AMC may have other things to say. But they also can't really afford to turn down money, quite literally.
One more thing: as for the larger box office picture...
Right now the overall box office is 5.1% ahead of last year — a margin that has been rapidly shrinking over the past few months. By comparison, revenues in early June were 25% ahead of 2024. After a slower end to summer, the all-important season will fall short of the elusive $4 billion mark. Ticket sales are currently at $3.5 billion from May through late August, the four-month stretch that’s regularly the busiest of the year for the movie theater business. Only once since the pandemic has the summer season managed to surpass $4 billion, a benchmark that was common before COVID disrupted the industry.
As always, the premise here is silly because it centers around revenue from ticket sales rather than actual number of tickets sold. And with ticket prices always going up and inflation, such a true comparison actually paints an even worse picture for the state of the business. Still, it's true that there was a lack of a major hit this year, with Lilo & Stitch the only movie to surpass $1B globally. Even the other "winners" listed likely barely covered their costs – Superman – or likely didn't – F1.
After 2023 passed the $4B mark fueled by 'Barbenhiemer', there was hope the industry would get back on the trajectory they were on pre-pandemic, when 2019 saw $4.38B in sales. Of course, $4.38B in 2019 is well over $5B in 2025 dollars, so those goalposts keep moving further away, if we're being honest. Which Hollywood never is in this regard. I mean, even that stellar 2019 year was tiny in terms of the percentage of the population going to movies historically. We're never getting back to that, of course. The world has just changed. The industry needs to wake up.
1 Which, by the way, was less than half the number of screens of the widest releases. Thanks, AMC. Didn't matter, it still easily won the weekend.
M.G. Siegler
M.G. Siegler
M.G. Siegler
M.G. Siegler
M.G. Siegler