An animated caper about singing teenagers who secretly battle the forces of evil has confirmed its status as the breakout hit of the summer after becoming Netflix’s most-watched film in its history.
KPop Demon Hunters, which tells the story of a world-famous all-female K-pop group tasked with protecting the world in their spare time, has become a surprise sensation since its launch in June.
Netflix has now confirmed the film is its most viewed of all time in any genre, overtaking its 2021 action movie Red Notice, which featured the Hollywood sparkle of the A-listers Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds and Gal Gadot. KPop Demon Hunters has now had more than 236m views.
It has also broken records at cinema box offices and in the music charts over recent weeks, defying concerns that original, animated movies were losing their lustre.
The film follows the story of Huntr/x, a group of three girls – Rumi, Mira and Zoey. They have to juggle their stardom with their secret status as demon hunters, which comes with the weighty responsibility of protecting the world.
If that wasn’t enough to clog up their diaries, they also have to battle against a rival band, Saja Boys, whose members are secretly – yes – demons.
The film became Netflix’s first No 1 in the US movie box office charts over the weekend after a singalong version was given a limited theatrical release, selling out shows across more than 1,000 venues.
It scooped a reported $18m (£13.4m) in a single weekend, though Netflix does not share data about its earnings from theatrical releases. Its success came despite Netflix’s apparent resistance to cinematic releases: the streamer tends to release a film in cinemas only when it is a requirement of making it eligible for awards season.
Audiences in the UK were also given the chance to attend cinema showings last weekend, with screenings similarly packed, before the release of the sing-along version of the film on Netflix.
Unsurprisingly for a film based on a pop group, the soundtrack has been key to its popularity, setting records of its own. It has become the first soundtrack ever to have four songs in the top 10 of the US Billboard Hot 100 at the same time. Its main hit, Golden, remains at No 1.
Three of its tracks are in the top five – the first time a soundtrack has achieved such a feat since Saturday Night Fever in 1978, when the Bee Gees wrote the three hits Night Fever, Stayin’ Alive and If I Can’t Have You, sung by Yvonne Elliman.
Meanwhile, other animation made by established studios has struggled this summer, as the likes of Disney and Universal Pictures have opted to pursue live-action remakes of popular hits such as Lilo & Stitch and How to Train Your Dragon.
Demon Hunters bucks the trend of remakes and the relentless exploitation of back catalogues, instead embracing an entirely new story of unknown characters, songs and stars. The movie was produced not by Netflix but by Sony Pictures Animation, which also made the Spider-Verse movies and has adopted an arresting visual style. KPop Demon Hunters has a persistent pink and purple hue.
The show spotlights the importance of another recent cultural phenomenon – the cult of fandom. The love of the group’s fans plays a key role in the film, while the movie’s real-world followers have driven its summer successes.
Ironically for a fantastical animated tale, some of those involved in the film say it is the relatability of the characters to its young audience that has inspired its popularity.
“On stage, they’re perfect,” said Arden Cho, one of the film’s main voice actors. “But put them together and they’re goofy, they’re real, they’re making funny faces. They eat all the things that they want, and they’re burping. I think it makes us, as girls, feel seen.”
