At first, Silvia Cruz, a parent of five, was skeptical when her children asked to watch “KPop Demon Hunters.”
“First of all, that title,” Cruz, a 41-year-old resident of Wake Forest, N.C., said in an interview. “No, you’re not watching anything with ‘Demon’ in it. And then I was like, ‘K-pop. What?’”
Now, by her count, she has seen the megahit Netflix animated film at least a dozen times since its release in June. Her kids, who range in age from 2 to 13, are up to about 30 viewings, she said, and when they’re not watching it, they’re usually listening to the soundtrack.
The movie has become an unexpected juggernaut this summer, and is well on its way to reaching the cultural resonance previously achieved by Disney films like “Encanto” and “Frozen.” The fantasy musical follows members of a fictional K-pop group, Huntrix, whose work consists of entertaining fans with their music and protecting them from demons.
“I was basically just trying to make something that I wanted to see: a movie that celebrated Korean culture,” Maggie Kang, who wrote and directed the film with Chris Appelhans, told The New York Times last month. “And for some reason, I landed on demonology.”
While the film was an immediate hit, its reach has only grown since its release. According to data provided by Nielsen, “KPop Demon Hunters” was streamed for about 250 million minutes during its release week — putting it squarely in the Top 10 of all streaming films for that week. But instead of tapering off as new titles became available, as is usually the case, the film only gained momentum. By the end of July, “KPop Demon Hunters” viewership had almost quadrupled, to 949 million minutes in the month’s third week alone, contributing to an overall increase in Netflix’s viewership numbers.
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