Netflix, I hope you have profusely thanked directors Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans, along with everyone else who worked on KPop Demon Hunters — a glittery, candy-colored spectacle of an animated gem that’s not only one of the best original movies the streamer has released in years, but also a ratings smash hit for the streamer.
The movie, about a fictional K-pop girl group that hunts demons, is so big that it’s actually dominated the Netflix global Top 10 movies chart for an entire month now, while its soundtrack has likewise taken the Billboard charts by storm. This week, in fact, Billboard reported that the soundtrack has climbed to #2 on the Billboard 200, while seven of its tracks (led by “Golden,” from the movie’s fictional K-pop girl group HUNTR/X) are currently on the Billboard Hot 100.
Long story short: If anything could be said to have attained the status of pop culture conversation-starter of the summer, it’s this Netflix standout — which, by the way, is also on track to become the most-watched Netflix animated movie ever.
In terms of the latest data on the movie from Netflix, as noted above, it’s now spent four weeks on the streamer’s global Top 10 English-language movies chart. It racked up another 24.2 million views for the 7-day period that ended on July 13, it’s a Top 10 Netflix movie in 93 countries this week — and it’s actually the #1 movie in 26 countries, including Canada, the UK, and more.
KPop Demon Hunters comes from the same studio behind Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and Netflix’s The Mitchells vs. The Machines, and the movie’s central characters are a trio of K-pop megastars named Rumi, Mira, and Zoey who dominate the charts by day and hunt demons at night. Their rivals are The Saja Boys, a seductive boy band made up of heartthrobs that are also literal demons.
In terms of some of its other achievements, the movie has managed to achieve a near-perfect Rotten Tomatoes critics’ score as of this writing (96%) as well as an audience score that’s in the same ballpark (91%). “I’m a 45 year old dad and watched this with my two girls,” one YouTube commenter raved earlier this month. “I cried like the fan dudes in the film. I guess it’s never too late to become a K-pop fan.”
The best thing about the movie, for me, is that it was clearly made by people who have a genuine affection for K-pop. And that love shines through in every detail, from the character designs to the soundtrack, making K-Pop Demon Hunters feel, instead of just another Netflix release, more like a love letter in celebration of K-pop’s energy, spirit, and global impact.
