I honestly hope for a backlash at some point, at least on certain titles. While the vast majority of Netflix stuff genuinely belongs there, and frankly deserves to be watched on TVs, once in a while a picture ends up there that definitely shouldn’t have (and I say this fully aware that the reported view counts will soon make DEMON HUNTERS Netflix’s most watched movie of all time). Still, coulda shoulda. It is what it is, and as RocShemp noted, the word of mouth blew it up anyway, which is all for the better. It’s just a strange, roundabout way to becoming a phenomenon, I suppose.

I watched the trailer for the movie and Netflix missed the mark in promoting it.
It had soundbites of several of the songs but no mention of Golden at all

I think the soundtrack at least would have blown up faster if the middle
of the trailer had most of Golden and some of the music video in it.
Looks like the trailer came out a month before the movie...

They should've done the themed cups, each with a different flavor, the girls have in the movie during the opening sequence.

Yesterday I was listening to this analysis of the popularity of the soundtrack, with particular attention paid to Golden and the myriad covers that have popped up. Although she makes some excellent points and offers a detailed breakdown of all the songs, like all such things, it still has traces of subjective opinion. That being said, I freely admit that the more I listen to the soundtrack, the less I find myself gravitating to Golden. I much prefer What It Sounds Like, Takedown, and Free. I also like to play How It's Done somewhat frequently.

Exactly. If this movie had been handled correctly from the beginning, those would’ve been prepped and released close to or before the theatrical debut, along with various other tie-ins as per standard practice. Instead all of these promos feel like sudden afterthoughts now. Better than nothing, I guess, but still, who knows what might’ve been . . .

Interesting video. Goes to show the amount of detailed, almost granular analysis and debate that has surrounded K-Pop for ages now. In fact, if you search ‘K-Pop industry analysis’ on YouTube you’ll find a mountain of content like that, including other takes on the movie and its soundtrack. It’s all a product of the social media age, I guess, where analysis of anything and everything can generate enough views to give their makers a decent hustle. I do like that she frequently touches on the darker aspects of the industry, which came up early in this thread as being largely absent from the film. And also the lip-syncing, which is widespread because who can carry a tune while dancing like that?

I don’t really follow all the minutiae of the industry, so it was also interesting to learn from that video that Purple Kiss – which I posted spoilered footage of yesterday – will disband in November after a whole five years (something a quick search tells me has likewise has caused much analysis and debate among fans). Not an uncommon occurrence, apparently. One of their catchier hits similarly utilized cartoonish fantasy/horror movie imagery:

I feel like Brian T is a demon trying to suck our souls by getting everyone on here in to Kpop.

I saw a video pointing out how their ramyun flavors each matched the individual girls in some way. For instance, Zoey, my favourite character, has hamburger flavor, since she is the American of the trio. Stuff like that could have been worked into the crosspromotion, including the same label art featured in the movie. Heck, they could have sold Derpy plushies as their answer to Baby Yoda.

That takes me back to when American pop performers used to be chastised for lip-syncing to heavily choreographed dance moves. So now they just sorta bounce on the stage between verses, whilst a veritable circus troupe dances around them.

Until I saw the analysis video I posted, I hadn't even heard of Purple Kiss before. My sister has probably heard of them. She really digs K-Pop and knows of a tonne of groups (new and old), whereas I used to listen to a lot of Canto Pop during my late HS - early college years (it still amuses me how many HK stars I watch started out in boy bands and/or as solo pop stars). I do like K-Pop to an extent, however. I dig Blackpink (although I hate how they work "Blackpink in your area" into almost every song, since it's repetitive and cheesy, and the phrasing makes it sound like they're pointing out you have a visible venereal disease) and æspa. However, buying their albums is a PITA since it feels like they nickle and dime you, spreading their better tracks among "mini albums", and a non-comprehensive regular album, that are priced almost like full albums because the useless junk (individually themed fold out posters, stickers and randomized picture cards) tacked on. Heck, when I bought a full album from æspa, I was annoyed to discover the CD didn't even come in a case but was instead tossed in a folded poster, along with stickers and picture cards. Or like my recent experience with the solo debut album of Lalisa (from Blackpink), where one of the tracks most heavily marketed in the album was excluded from the CD and available only on the standard/deluxe digital release. I am old enough to be accustomed to exclusive tracks on international releases (this happened a lot in metal albums), but never have I seen a main track of an album held back as an exclusive. I ended up returning that album to Amazon, since it annoyed me and the missing track happened to be my favourite from that album.

I did try listening to BTS when the craze with them started, but their music did not hook me. And yesterday I gave some Twice tracks a listen. They were well made tracks, but I found myself getting bored with them. So I guess I like but don't love K-Pop.
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I was at a gathering of J-pop fans in a friend's apartment over a decade ago around the time K-pop was first taking hold in the U.S. and our host showed us some K-pop videos. We'd been discussing why K-pop was making inroads in the U.S. that J-pop would never make and after one of the K-pop videos, one of the women there responded, "That was fierce!," which prompted our host to declare that that was why K-pop was succeeding here: "K-pop is fierce. Americans like fierce. J-pop is cute. Americans don't like cute."

Kpop has been big here for a while but it does seem like BTS and Black Pink in particular have blown up a lot in the US lately, especially with songs catered to an English audience (which is what the Kpop Demon Hunter songs are). No idea without looking it up what the lead time was on this movie and when Sony shopped it to Netflix but I wonder if that development didn't happen until after the deal (still, again, no excuse for Netflix who are heavily into Korean dramas and the like)

According to Wikipedia, Sony announced the film in March 2021. Looks like Netflix picked it up around April 2022 - it was set for theatrical release before that. Confirmed for Netflix in February 2023.

The trades are now reporting this is the most watched Netflix movie ever. Over 236M views and counting.

You’re all my soda pops.

https://variety.com/2025/film/news/k...ntent=&utm_id=

Not official yet, but Sony and Netflix are in talks about getting a sequel made.

Too bad Netflix is involved again, that kills any chance of a theatrical release for the sequel, oh well

They may do another limited theatrical run like they did this past weekend.

I think the soonest we'll get something would be 2028 or 2029 due to the animation work. But, I'm sure the K-Pop song writers will crank out some catchy songs fairly quick.

There are dozens of perceived no-brainer failures, and many more things that only seem that way in retrospect. As you note, Netflix may actually have played an outsize part in the success - I wonder if there's a loose comparison to Siegel & Shuster selling Superman for a pittance; yes, it's now a well-known massive success story, but a large part of the WHY is the company that bought it.

But it's just going to be another weekend thing, long after it's on Netflix.
Sure, it'll appear in a couple theaters at the beginning, but useless
unless you live near there...

I’ve noticed a lot of videos with K-fans showing people how to make the special ramen meals from the movie. And of course those videos now have hundreds of thousands to millions of views. If Sony hadn’t dropped the ball, I’m sure their marketing department – which is undoubtedly more experienced than Netflix’s – would’ve been hitting up Korean noodle brands and influencers for collaborations long before the movie even premiered. It’s great that Nongshim jumped in, but like I said it feels like an afterthought, and the special packaging is pretty basic, with pics of the characters just slapped on various bestselling products. I’m sure they’ll still sell like crazy.


That’s how my own interest in Asian pop music started out: with Hong Kong’s Cantopop stars. Almost from the outset of ‘discovering’ HK movies, I’d frequently hear really catchy songs on the soundtracks. Once I figured out where the song credits were in the closing credits of the movies (which were usually in traditional Chinese only), and also learned the Chinese characters for the names of many top actors, I realized that not only were they acting in the movies but also frequently singing the theme songs, and contributing songs to other movies. A decent collection of CDs and downloads followed. Nowadays I just check out videos here and there on YouTube because like everything else in Hong Kong, the spark has pretty much been stifled by China, though there are still some talented younger acts keeping Cantopop alive (including K-Pop styled groups like Mirror, Error, Collar, P1X3L, After Class and others) but the global reach and engagement is pretty limited compared to even the lower-tier K-Pop acts.

The ‘discovery’ process for Korean music repeated itself thanks to HK disc companies distributing Korean movies on DVD in the late 90’s and onward. Most of the top singers were longstanding solo artists but within a few short years, the boy/girl group + intricate dance choreography + American style appropriation formula was set in stone, and the internet and social media made it easier to find stuff, but eventually there was just so much of it that I kinda stopped hunting and just randomly listen to whatever videos look interesting. There's only so much time!

I don’t buy the albums or merch but I’ve seen a lot of it in shops here and it’s overwhelming, and I’ve certainly heard about all the tchotchkes and limited edition gimmickry. Sign of the times, I suppose. Every hobby has to load up on the gimmicks to keep fans shelling out money. Heck, most of our favorite Blu-ray boutiques do it too. I wouldn’t be surprised if they start doing ‘blind box’ releases at some point.

As for liking not loving K-Pop, I suspect a lot of people are in that camp. Even for me, plenty of songs might become earworms but the majority are in one ear and out the other, and I’m lucky if I can match a song to a group in my mind. Also, ten seconds of the dancing would put me in traction. Of course, I’m hardly the target audience. Those young folks obsessively ‘collect’ groups, singers, songs, merch, and even the dance routines the way others collect trading cards or comics and whatnot.


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Koreans are fierce! And I say that from long personal experience. They even have this :

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_(cultural)

K-Pop took something J-Pop had been doing for a long time – multi-member boy and girl groups with interchangeable members and perky bubblegum music (I’m sure Ash remembers Morning Musume and all their kin) – and cranked it up to eleven fairly early. Pre-2000’s, the majority of performers were solo artists (like BoA) doing bittersweet love ballads and uptempo dance-y numbers. K-Pop as we know it today was still in its infancy but it took shape relatively fast.

Where J-Pop seemingly failed to evolve, as Ash notes, was in its reliance on ‘cute’ / kawaii visuals and sexless bubblegum pop with no thump, no threat, even a manufactured threat. Koreans could do ‘bubblegum cute’ blindfolded but Japan already cornered that market across Asia. So much like how Korea’s moribund film industry turned around in literally the space of one year in 1999 when a small group of filmmakers deliberately broke with traditions and made very American-style movies (all laced with the uniquely Korean form of ‘Han’-infused melodrama that had permeated their entertainment for decades), the music companies realized that injecting saccharine Asian pop (already rooted in American MOR bubblegum pop from the 60’s onward) with contemporary American funk, r&b, hip-hop, rap, and even disco gave it an edge other Asian pop industries couldn’t touch, especially paired with rigorous precision dance choreography. And then they ran with it. It’s commonly reported that the maturation of social media circa 2011-2012 really kicked it all into high gear (with Gangnam Style breaking the internet in 2012). By then the other Asian pop industries could really only stay in their lanes. There’s still some excellent music and performers in those countries, but none have the kind of powerhouse cultural-export industry machine behind them that the Korean acts do (for better and for worse).

Speaking of which, the movie opened in three theaters for a week
to satisfy Oscar requirements the same day it premiered on Netflix.

Seems strange the movie didn't open a week or two earlier along with
the soundtrack to build up momentum for the Netflix release...

https://funko.com/fandoms/movies-tv/kpop-demon-hunters/

Funko just sent out an email for preoders of the official Kpop Demon Hunters pops. Won't be available until January.

They should have anticipated demand for these awhile ago to have them out by Christmas. They would have sold like crazy.

Those ugly ass Funko toys are still popular? My distaste for them notwithstanding, you are correct. Those should've been fast tracked for Christmas.

EDIT: At least Derpy and Sussie look cool.
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Turns out GMA is jumping on the KPDH bandwagon

As I mentioned earlier, GMA promoted the sing-a-long last week.
But today they teased that they are doing something on KPDH on Tuesday
So might be worth watching GMA next week...

GMA had a couple videos this week:

Once again the coolest looking ones are the ones that don't look like Funkos...

Arden Cho, who plays Rumi has been a working actress for a long time. Seems like this is her 1st big role in her career.

I watched some YouTube videos last night of "EJae" who is the singing voice for Rumi. She's very likeable and was unknown until this job.

This is pretty much becoming a common refrain surrounding the movie and its marketing at this point. How the execs at both Sony and Netflix could not have anticipated any of this truly boggles the mind. It’s great to see all these belated tie-ins but man, the missed opportunities beyond this handful should go down as one of the bigger movie marketing blunders of the era.

I’ve even seen laughable comments from the ignorant online that K-Culture just wasn’t a ‘thing’ when the movie was first being proposed in 2020 or thereabouts when it well beyond an international phenomenon at that point. I mean, Gangnam Style broke the internet in 2012, for gawd’s sake, and that was substantially in part due to the fact that Korean music and pop culture was very much an established ‘thing’ for years at that ooont, and YouTube was already stuffed with K-Pop videos taking in tens to hundreds of millions of views. That’s what makes the early treatment of this picture like a cast-off so astounding.

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I thought it was cool to see South Korea getting in on the action, likewise after-the-fact thanks to Sony and Netflix of course. This is from late last week: