‘KPop Demon Hunters’ & the Reverse Window Wake-Up Call
Gen Z demand for IRL and millennial nostalgia reshape the box office as Disney's ‘Hamilton’ takes the next swing
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Even if you’re not personally a Huntr/x superfan, I struggle to imagine a universe in which you’ve not realized that KPop Demon Hunters is the movie of the summer. The animated mega-hit has taken the world by storm, becoming Netflix’s most-watched original movie and its first-ever No. 1 film at the box office — thanks to what essentially amounts to a reverse streaming-first window powered by word of mouth.
In just two days on 1,700 screens in the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the U.K., KPop Demon Hunters special weekend of singalong theatrical screenings made $18 million — more than two months after its June 20 release on Netflix. It debuted at No. 2 in Netflix’s global Top 10 and has landed in one of the top two slots for nine weeks and counting. (If you haven’t already, check out my colleague Lesley Goldberg’s interview with the co-directors, Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans, and the seven year journey to get the movie made.)
Anytime a project reaches this level of cultural relevance, especially if it’s also driving revenue, execs across town start trying to figure out how they can tap into whatever is propelling it. There’s long been conversation about collapsing theatrical windows, and a general lack of enthusiasm around the day-and-date releases that became popular during the pandemic. So it’s been clear some kind of evolution was necessary, but the idea of reversing the order of the windows and strategically bringing projects to theaters after they’ve already found a fandom on streaming hasn’t earnestly been part of the conversation. Until now.
KPop Demon Hunters is a unicorn, an animated fantasy musical that has pop culture in a chokehold with its entirely too catchy soundtrack, but it doesn’t have to be the last of its kind. In fact, a 10-year-old Broadway show turned 5-year-old streaming hit, Hamilton, is having its theatrical debut this weekend.
So, I’m going to break down why Demon Hunters’ success matters, what it says about big changes in consumer demand driven by Gen Z and how Hollywood can leverage these lessons to revive the theatrical experience — and make some money too.
In this bonus issue of Dealmakers, I’ll get into …
How KPop Demon Hunters blew past other original animated films on a per-screen basis
Why the industry’s old Oscar-qualifying runs will never generate this kind of heat
Which genres are best suited for the reverse-window model — and why it’s not just musicals
The two rules Hollywood can’t ignore if it wants reverse windows to work
How streamers’ own data can dictate timing, strategy and release approach
Why millennial nostalgia isn’t just sentimental — it’s serious business
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