It’s going to be a Golden Halloween. After giving Netflix its first ever No. 1 at the box office in August, “KPop Demon Hunters” is coming back to theaters on Halloween weekend for another limited engagement.
The record-smashing Sony Pictures Animation film will be screened at AMC, Regal and Cinemark locations nationwide from Oct. 31 to Nov. 2. During a two-day limited engagement at the end of the summer, the film made $18 million to lead the box office charts.
It’s a notable thaw in the relationship between Netflix and movie theaters, who have regularly been at odds over the streamer’s continued approach to releasing only a select few films in a few hundred theaters for only a couple weeks at most before releasing them on their platform.
“While the two companies have not had a commercial relationship in recent years, both Netflix and AMC are intrigued by the mutually beneficial opportunities that could arise from this and future collaboration,” said AMC, which will screen “KPop Demon Hunters at 400 of its locations.
“Discussions are underway as to what that may entail, but no further details are being shared at this time.”
Since its release in July, “KPop Demon Hunters” has shattered the record for the most watched movie ever on Netflix, spending 15 weeks in the top 2 on the streaming service’s charts. The film’s climactic song, “Golden,” also spent eight weeks in the top spot of the Billboard Hot 100 before it was dethroned earlier this month by the release of Taylor Swift’s single “The Fate of Ophelia.”
While original animation has struggled to get moviegoers into theaters, the streaming release of “KPop Demon Hunters” allowed the film to quickly go viral on TikTok and other video platforms, allowing word-of-mouth about the film to spread quickly. Cosplay and re-enactments of the film’s dance scenes spread like wildfire, turning it into the pop culture phenomenon of the summer.
And despite its availability on streaming, fans turned up for the sing-along version, selling out hundreds of screenings on a weekend where there was no major competition.
With studios declining to release any major new films on a weekend where a Halloween falls on a Friday — meaning families and younger adults are both expected to be out and about rather than wanting to go to a theater — Netflix is taking advantage of the open slot to boost the film’s popularity while theaters, who have clashed with Netflix’s strategy to eschew full theatrical windows, get a small boost to their business in what has been a tepid October for the box office.
