Netflix has had a good run of animated films, but none hold a candle to their latest release, KPop Demon Hunters. The company has just announced that the movie, which premiered on June 20th, has become the most-watched original animated film in the streaming platform’s history.
In a little over a month, it’s already reached 106.1 million views.
The movie, which follows a fictional K-pop band called HUNTR/X, is largely music-driven. This has also led to accolades for the KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack, which peaked at #2 on the all-genre Billboard 200 with seven of the songs hitting the Billboard Hot 100. These stats make it the highest-charting soundtrack of the year.
The success of the soundtrack is largely due to co-directors Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans’ decision to bring in top K-pop talent. BLACKPINK producer Teddy Park contributed to the hits ‘How It’s Done‘ and ‘Golden‘, which introduce HUNTR/X to viewers. Other contributors include Nenna Andrews and Stephen Kirk, who wrote the hits ‘Butter‘ and ‘Permission to Dance‘ for real-life K-pop megastars BTS.
HUNTR/X itself consists of Audrey Nuna, Ejae, and Rei Ami, who perform the songs from the film. The most popular single is ‘Golden,’ which hit #1 on the Billboard Global Charts. Watch the official lyric video and follow along with our official score.
The success of KPop Demon Hunters has again proven the power of music, specifically the pop phenomenon of music from South Korea. Even Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos has noted its power.
‘The mix of music and pop culture, getting it right matters… the storytelling matters, the innovation and animation itself matters, and the fact that people are in love with this film and in love with the music from this film… will keep it going for a long time,’ he said on the company’s Q2 earnings call on July 18th. ‘Now the next beat is, where does it go from here?’
