While KPop Demon Hunters is almost exclusively associated with Netflix as it sets record after record across two different industries, streaming and music, few may know who actually developed and produced the film, Sony Pictures Animation, the studio behind Enter the Spider-Verse (you may see some similarities to that style here).
The film is a colossal hit, so surely that must be working out great for Sony, right? Well, not so much.
According to industry fixture Matt Belloni, the problem is how this original deal was structured. Sony made KPop Demon Hunters for $100 million, then sold the rights to Netflix. Now, reports are that Sony will end up making just $20 million in profit on the deal thanks to those terms, as anything that happens from here, that’s all Netflix, since they own the property.
At the time, that probably sounded like a deal that was just fine. It’s a good movie, it would be fed into the Netflix conveyer belt of content, be watched, and everyone will praise it for a weekend and move on.
But the rest is history, of course. As I write this, Kpop Demon Hunters remains the #1 movie on Netflix seven weeks after release, something we’ve never seen before. It has been elevated to Netflix’s second most-viewed movie ever, and it has its sights set on #1, Red Notice. It has placed at #1 on almost every top music chart with its fictional group HUNTR/X’s track Golden, most recently achieving the ultimate prize, landing at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, the first Kpop group to do so, and the first girl group to do so since Destiny’s Child.
Netflix reportedly views KPop Demon Hunters as its “Frozen” equivalent, Disney’s billion dollar franchise. While KPop Demon Hunters is not making bank at the box office, it’s a huge success in Netflix terms and that will spawn at least a trilogy of movies, and there are rumblings of a live-action adaptation or even a stage show. Live-action may seem a bit goofy and antithetical to the concept, but the singing voices of the three girls are essentially those characters in real life, appearance-wise, so that helps.
As for Sony, its involvement in what happens from here is unclear. Netflix, of course, needs someone to make these future movies, and while Sony largely missed out on the success of this first film, I imagine that will not slip away the second or third time around. We have no announcements of what’s coming next for KPop Demon Hunters, and that may be why. I’ve asked Sony for comment and will report if I hear back.
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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
