Talk to distribution sources and they’re crying how we’re bound for one of the year’s lowest-grossing weekends. There’s even unfortunate chatter out there that this summer, currently at $3.4 billion and up 2% from last summer, might come in even or under 2024’s. Yikes.
Then out of the blue, Netflix, the $512.6 billion content streaming company that is all about subscriptions and never theatrical, is releasing a sing-along version of its widely watched animated movie Kpop Demon Hunters in roughly 1,700 locations in what is strictly a Saturday and Sunday play in most circuits except for AMC. There are 1,100 sites sold out. As of this minute, per sources, Kpop Demon Hunters is looking at a surprise No. 1 win with around $15 million+ (some have it higher), besting the third weekend of New Line’s Zach Cregger movie Weapons which is looking to do $13.5M. Weapons is about to cross $100M at the domestic B.O. either today or definitely by Friday.
Kpop Demon Hunters is currently the second most viewed movie on Netflix with 210.5 million global views and is bound overtake the streamer’s most watched movie Red Notice, which stands at 230.9 million views. Over the last two weeks the movie had been an anomaly on the OTT service with 26M views per week, a 0% decrease.
Our understanding is that Weapons has 3.9 million seats available to be sold this weekend to Kpop Demon Hunters‘ 3.4M.
Here are the asterisks: Kpop Demon Hunters is a slight headache for some box office sources to predict because it’s only a Saturday and Sunday show. The movie isn’t really going to register on some weekend reports until Saturday, not tomorrow. Also, the movie is aimed at young females, a that can show up in bulk initially then fall off. That said, presales on Kpop Demon Hunters have sources excited.
Netflix doesn’t report grosses, though it did provide guidance when it had Rian Johnson’s Knives Out: Glass Onion out in its exclusive Thanksgiving 2022 one-week run (that did include No. 1 chain AMC); the title grossed $15M stateside (in what was a $400M package for parts 2 and 3 bought by the streamer). In addition, Netflix doesn’t unveil its grosses in ComScore, the shared movie ticket sales system shared by exhibition and distributors when it comes to box office grosses.
Kpop Demon Hunters is co-written and co-directed by Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans, and follows Rumi (Arden Cho), Mira (May Hong) and Zoey (Ji-young Yoo), three young-adult popstars in a group called Huntr/x, who are tasked to deal with supernatural threats because of their ancient demon slayer lineage. However, when their biggest demonic enemy (Lee Byung-hun) encourages the formation of an equally popular K-pop boy band aimed at stealing the souls of their fans, the trio has to fight harder than ever to hold the demons at bay while keeping their friendship intact. The two factional Kpop groups in the movie are now the highest-charting Kpop groups ever next to real ones like BTS and Blackpink.
Those wide releases this weekend are largely aimed at upscale metro audiences, with Focus Features’ Ethan Coen-directed Honey Don’t! eyeing $3M+ at 1,300 locations and Bleecker Street’s David Mackenzie-directed Relay eyeing single digits at 1,458 sites.
Katie Campione contributed to this report.
