Netflix Wins Historic Box Office Weekend With 2 Month Old Movie That Has Already Been Watched 210M Times

Netflix is about to win the box office this weekend after their unprecedented release of their streaming hit, KPop Demon Hunters, but you are never going to find out how much the movie made. However, experts in the field of box office takings have estimated that the limited two-day sing-along event showings of the animated smash hit in 1700 theaters have resulted in a total gross of around $18-20 million. This would be more than enough to see off competition from Zach Cregger’s horror hit, Weapons in its third weekend of release, but as Netflix refuses to share details about the money made from their sparse theatrical releases, Weapons will officially win another weekend.

In the technical sense of things, KPop Demon Hunters’ success over the last two days has made history as Netflix’s first ever number 1 weekend in almost 20 years of distributing movies to viewers in multiple formats. It is perhaps not surprising at all considering some of the theaters that took part in Netflix’s one-off event were showing the movie on up to five screens at a time, and many were sold out days ago.

While this could be a sign that Netflix needs to get more skin in the game when it comes to theatrical releases, those expecting to see more Netflix movies playing in their local cinema may need to lower their hopes a little, as reports have suggested that Netflix has no intention at all of changing their regular strategy to adopt a cinema-friendly release schedule in the future.

‘KPop Demon Hunters’ Is Not Your Average Netflix Movie

KPop Demon Hunters fight

Netflix

Fan reactions to KPop Demon Hunters have been one of those moments in the industry when everything seems to come together in a way that explodes. The film debuted on Netflix back in June, and has never left the Top 3 on the platform since. For almost 90% of the last two months, the film has been topping the charts around the world, and it has also become one of the most watched movies in Netflix’s history. It is the second-most-watched movie in Netflix history with 210 million views against Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds, and Gal Gadot’s Red Notice, which has 230 million. In addition to this, the film also spawned a No1 Billboard Chart hit with the original song, “Golden.”

Even more surprisingly is that critics actually love KPop Demon Hunters even more than feverish viewers. The film currently holds a 97% Tomatometer score and 91% Popcornmeter rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Described by many as a movie that “hits all the senses at once,” the power of KPop Demon Hunters comes from its combination of catchy K-Pop, flawless animation, a killer script, and a film that just lands in every way.

What is more, is that many reviews from the last few days have all noted one thing – that people who would never normally pay to see a movie in a cinema after they have just watched it for “free” on streaming have had no issues with doing so for KPop Demon Hunters. This may not be Netflix saying that they are about to take a shine to cinema releases, but they have proven that when they do, everyone else had better watch out.