Sony's 'KPop' Gift
Alex Weprin
Obviously, after the success of KPop Demon Hunters – now Netflix's biggest movie ever – there's a lot of second-guessing going on. Should Sony have kept it to themselves? After the massive one-weekend-only event, should it have been given a full theatrical release? I actually found Sony CEO Ravi Ahuja's answers pretty refreshingly honest:
Speaking at a Bank of America conference Thursday, Ahuja was asked by analyst Jessica Reif Ehrlich whether KPop Demon Hunters could have worked in theaters for Sony.
“This is the question we ask ourselves, everyone is asking us too. You know, I don’t know. Obviously in hindsight it is such a big hit you think maybe it could’ve,” Ahuja said.
The easy, prepared answer would have been something like "Netflix is a great partner and we're thrilled with the success the movie has seen with them" deflecting from the actual question. But it's also not so black and white, as he's alluding to:
“It was during the pandemic, it’s k-pop themed, it was a very specific film, Netflix paid the whole cost plus a profit premium to us,” Ahuja added, explaining why the studio made the decision it did. “At the time it made sense, but in hindsight you think maybe it could’ve been theatrical, and in fact Netflix took it to theaters.”
And when asked if Sony would have been able to replicate the success on their own, without Netflix:
“It started out on Netflix, and word of mouth made it grow. In theatrical that is a lot harder to do,” Ahuja said, noting that theatrical movies need to make a cultural impact fast. “I think it was in the right home. I think KPop Demon Hunters’ right home was Netflix, but yeah, it is an interesting question, could it have been theatrical? It is hard to say.”
I think he's probably right that this was the type of movie that was perfectly built for Netflix virality and doing a more traditional theatrical release might not have worked. It very well could have bombed. Which is exactly why everyone should be thinking about these new types of release patterns. Why not go with streaming first, as clearly worked here? Why does theatrical have to be the first window?
“The theatrical bar, what is the bar you have to get over to make it theatrical … and I think for superhero movies the bar was relatively low,” Ahuja said of the state of franchise films. “Pretty much all of them would do incredible business, but now even superhero movies have to have originality, something different, an emotional connection.”
“Things have to be cultural events, they have to be really appealing to some audience,” he added.
Yeah, and you do that not just through marketing, which is increasingly fragmented across so many channels, you can leverage other means, such as the streaming services! Of course, getting the theater owners to buy into that might be an issue – unless you own a theater chain...
The exec also laid out a vision for Sony under his leadership, focusing on “consistent, stable growth over time,” while exploring new areas.
That includes experiential entertainment through the Alamo Drafthouse, which he noted is still “relatively under-penetrated in big cities.”
“Our aspiration is not to be huge in theatrical distribution,” he added, instead leaning on that team to help forge direct consumer ties.
If I were Ahuja, with my Netflix deal just about up and all the other streamers wanting my content for their service, I would see this Demon Hunters phenomenon as a huge last-minute gift. Use it to strike a deal with a lot more flexibility when it comes to distribution.
You could continue to release some films in theaters before they go to streaming, but you could also push some right to streaming with a provision that if they're starting to take off, there's an agreement to pull it over into theaters, just as with Demon Hunters. Or maybe the first movie is streaming-only, but if it works over an extended period of time, the sequel goes to theaters. Or vice-versa! Try it all!
What if just as Netflix was Sony's streaming partner, Sony/Alamo is Netflix's theatrical partner? When it makes sense! As it often does!
M.G. Siegler
M.G. Siegler
M.G. Siegler
M.G. Siegler
M.G. Siegler