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'KPop Demon Hunters' Completes Another Double
Music

‘KPop Demon Hunters’ Completes Another Double

by jummy84
written by jummy84

It’s another chart week, another chart double for KPop Demon Hunters (Republic/Universal) in Australia.

The soundtrack to the hit animated Netflix film is flying at the top of the ARIA leaderboard for a ninth non-consecutive week. Among soundtracks, ARIA reports, that effort equals the nine week run by the 1997 soundtrack for Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo & Juliet.

Since the ARIA Charts were first published in 1983, only four soundtracks have logged more weeks at the top, according to the charts compiler: the Australian cast recording of Jesus Christ Superstar (10 weeks in 1992); plus Titanic (1998), Moulin Rouge (2001) and A Star Is Born (2018), which each led for 11 weeks.

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Meanwhile, the top track from KPop Demon Hunters, “Golden,” reigns over the ARIA Singles Chart for a ninth consecutive week. That’s closing in on the all-time mark for a hit from an animated film, currently set at 12 weeks by Pharrell Williams’ 2014 single “Happy” from Despicable Me 2.

Back with the ARIA Albums Chart, Ocean Alley’s Love Balloon (via Community Music) lifts off for a No. 3 debut, the highest start for any new release on the current frame, published Friday, Sept. 26.

Recorded in three stints over about three months, Love Balloon is Ocean Alley’s fifth studio album, and first recorded with legendary American rock producer Nick DiDia (Bruce Springsteen, Rage Against The Machine).

With that bright start, Love Balloon is the Sydney indie-rock outfit’s third consecutive collection to hit No. 3, following 2020’s Lonely Diamond and 2022’s Low Altitude Living. Their breakthrough second album from 2018, Chiaroscuro, which housed the triple j Hottest 100 leader “Confidence,” reached No. 11 on the national survey.

Ocean Alley scores silverware as Love Balloon is crowned on the ARIA Top 20 Australian Albums chart, a feat they celebrated Saturday at London’s Alexandra Palace, with a headline show for more than 8,000 fans.

Also debuting in the top tier is Cardi B‘s sophomore studio album, Am I The Drama? (Atlantic/Warner), new at No. 8. Drama is the followup to the Bronx rapper’s 2018, Invasion Of Privacy, which peaked at No. 5.

Trent Reznor’s Nine Inch Nails bags a top 10 with the soundtrack to TRON: Ares (Interscope/Universal). It’s new at No. 10 for the American industrial rock act’s sixth top tier effort in Australia, a tally that includes a best of No. 2 for 1999’s The Fragile. Daft Punk’s soundtrack to TRON: Legacy reached No. 17 in 2011.

Lola Young just misses out on a top 10 berth with I’m Only F—ing Myself (Island/Universal), her third album. It’s new at No. 12, for the British singer’s first ARIA Albums Chart appearance.

Further down the list, published late Friday, September 26th, Brisbane band Platonic Sex crack the top 40 with their debut album Face To The Flywire (Orchard). It’s new at No. 31.

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'KPop Demon Hunters' Soundtrack Hits No. 1 on Billboard 200 Chart
Music

‘KPop Demon Hunters’ Soundtrack Hits No. 1 on Billboard 200 Chart

by jummy84
written by jummy84

The soundtrack to Netflix’s animated film KPop Demon Hunters hits No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart for the first time, rising 2-1 on the chart dated Sept. 20, after seven nonconsecutive weeks in the runner-up slot. The set earned 128,000 equivalent album units in the United States in the week ending Sept. 11 (up 7%), according to Luminate, marking the album’s best week yet. The surge to No. 1 follows the album’s deluxe reissue on Sept. 5 with additional tracks, plus the wide release of its CD that day.

KPop Demon Hunters’ rise to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 was preceded by four top 10-charted hits on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart — the most from a soundtrack in nearly 30 years, with the soundtrack the first ever with four simultaneous top 10s. Among those is the No. 1 “Golden” by HUNTR/X — the trio of EJAE, Audrey Nuna and REI AMI (the singing voices of the film’s characters Rumi, Mira and Zoey).

KPop Demon Hunters is the Billboard 200’s first No. 1 soundtrack in three-and-a-half years, since another animated film, Encanto, saw its companion album spend nine nonconsecutive weeks on top (Jan. 15-March 19, 2022).

Notably, as KPop Demon Hunters climbs to No. 1 in its 12th week on the chart, it completes the longest wait to reach No. 1 since Toby Keith’s 2008 release 35 Biggest Hits re-entered the chart at No. 1 on the Feb. 17, 2024-dated list, following his death that Feb. 5. The last album with a longer continuous climb to No. 1 than KPop Demon Hunters was The Kid LAROI’s F*ck Love, which jumped 26-1 in its 53rd consecutive chart week, on the Aug. 7, 2021, list. The latter vaulted to No. 1 following two reissues during that tracking week.

Meawhile, the last soundtrack to take a longer journey to No. 1 was O Brother, Where Art Thou?, which rose 2-1 in its 63rd continuous week on the chart, on the March 23, 2002-dated list. Its ascent to the top was aided by its Grammy Award win for album of the year at the 44th annual ceremony that Feb. 27.

Plus, KPop Demon Hunters spent seven nonconsecutive weeks at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 before reaching No. 1. That’s the longest wait an album endured in the runner-up spot before leading the Billboard 200 in nearly a half-century: In October-November 1977, Linda Ronstadt’s Simple Dreams logged nine weeks at No. 2 before topping the chart at last. (Stray Cats’ Built for Speed holds the record for the most weeks peaking at No. 2: 15 in 1982-83.)

Also in the top 10 of the latest Billboard 200: Justin Bieber’s SWAG vaults 17-4 following its deluxe expansion with 23 additional tracks, and sombr’s I Barely Know Her reaches the top 10 for the first time, rising 12-10 in its third week, following the artist’s performance on the MTV Video Music Awards (Sept. 7).

The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new Sept. 20, 2025-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on Sept. 16. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.

Of KPop Demon Hunters’ 128,000 equivalent album units earned in the latest tracking week, SEA units comprise 103,000 (up less than 1%, equaling 141.08 million on-demand official streams of the set’s tracks — it rises 2-1 on Top Streaming Albums for its first week on top), album sales comprise 23,000 (up 56%; it’s pushed down 3-4 on Top Album Sales) and TEA units comprise 2,000 (down 7%).

In the tracking week, the soundtrack got a boost from its deluxe reissue as a digital download and streaming album on Sept. 5 with 23 additional tracks. The additional cuts are mostly sing-along, instrumental and a cappella versions of the album’s hit songs. The album’s sales gain was aided by the wide release of its standard 12-track CD to brick-and-mortar retailers. It is available in five CD variants, each containing a poster and randomized photocard. A vinyl release for the project is expected Oct. 17.

KPop Demon Hunters premiered on June 20 in a limited theatrical release in the U.S. (in three movie theaters), and on Netflix, alongside its soundtrack. The film returned to theaters, this time nationwide, for a limited engagement on Aug. 23-24 as a sing-along version. The same sing-along version hit Netflix on Aug. 25.

In the tracking week ending Sept. 7, the animated film was No. 2 in its 12th week on Netflix’s Top 10 Movies in United States chart, with four of those weeks at No. 1. The movie now stands as the most popular original Netflix film to date.

KPop Demon Hunters is the seventh animated film soundtrack to reach No. 1 on the Billboard 200, since the list began publishing on a regular weekly basis in March 1956. It follows Encanto (nine weeks at No. 1, 2022), Frozen II (one week, 2019), Frozen (13, 2014), Jack Johnson’s Curious George (one, 2006), Pocahontas (one, 1995) and The Lion King (10, 1994-95).

KPop Demon Hunters ends a dry spell for soundtracks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. It’s been three years and six months since Encanto spent its ninth and final week atop the list (dated March 19, 2022). That’s the longest the chart has gone without a soundtrack at No. 1 since the three-year and nearly eight-month gap between the second and final week at No. 1 for Armageddon (July 25, 1998) and the first of two weeks at No. 1 for O Brother, Where Art Thou? (March 23, 2002).

Back on the latest Billboard 200, Sabrina Carpenter’s Man’s Best Friend falls to No. 2 with 119,000 equivalent album units earned (down 68%) after debuting at No. 1 a week ago. Morgan Wallen’s chart-topping I’m the Problem is a non-mover at No. 3 with 98,000 (down 6%).

Justin Bieber’s SWAG surges 17-4 with 80,000 equivalent album units (up 223%) after it was surprise reissued in a deluxe edition as a digital download and streaming album on Sept. 5 with 23 additional tracks. The deluxe edition is dubbed SWAG II and contains the original SWAG album’s 21 tracks, along with an additional 23 bonus tracks. The original SWAG album was also a surprise affair, arriving on July 11 with little notice; it debuted at its No. 2 best. All versions of SWAG are combined for tracking and charting purposes.

SWAG also gets an assist from the release of the standard 21-track album’s release on CD and via two deluxe CD boxed sets (each containing a branded T-shirt and a copy of the standard SWAG album).

Alex Warren’s You’ll Be Alright, Kid is a non-mover at No. 5 on the Billboard 200 with 38,000 equivalent album units earned (up less than 1%). SZA’s chart-topping SOS climbs 9-6 (just over 33,000, down 2%), Wallen’s former leader One Thing at a Time dips 6-7 (33,000, down 6%), Stray Kids’ chart-topping KARMA falls 4-8 (32,000, down 49%), and Gunna’s The Last Wun falls 8-9 (31,000, down 10%).

Closing out the top 10 is sombr’s debut studio album I Barely Know Her, which rises 12-10 in its third week on the chart — and its first week in the top 10. The set earned 29,000 equivalent album units in the latest tracking week (up 5%). The rise comes after sombr performed a medley of the album’s “Back to Friends” and “12 to 12” on the MTV Video Music Awards broadcast on CBS on Sept. 7. Prior to the album’s ascent to the top 10, its singles “Back to Friends” and “Undressed” both hit the top 30 of the Hot 100 and the top 20 of the all-genre Streaming Songs chart.

It’s free Billboard charts month! Through Sept. 30, subscribers to Billboard’s Chart Beat newsletter, emailed each Friday, can unlock access to Billboard’s weekly and historical charts, artist chart histories and all Chart Beat stories simply by visiting the newly redesigned Billboard.com through any story link in the newsletter. Not a Chart Beat subscriber? Sign up for free here.

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'KPop Demon Hunters' Singer and Songwriter EJAE On Writing 'Golden'
TV & Streaming

‘KPop Demon Hunters’ Singer and Songwriter EJAE On Writing ‘Golden’

by jummy84
written by jummy84

Both “Golden” and “KPop Demon Hunters” have become a global phenomenon.

In a nutshell, “KPop Demon Hunters” dropped on Netflix in June, and it exploded. It’s the biggest movie ever to stream on the platform. Four songs from the film’s soundtrack sit on Billboard’s top 10, and the film landed the top spot at the domestic box office – a first for the streamer.

The film’s “I Want” song “Golden” sung by the fictional K-Pop girl band Huntr/X sits atop the Billboard Top 10 and is undeniably the song of the summer. Countless social media videos show parents playing the song on repeat for their children, and adults have no shame in sharing their sing-along moments for the world to see.

There’s no escaping “Golden.”

“KPop Demon Hunters” follows Huntr/X, the fictional K-pop girl group whose members double as demon hunters. When they’re not battling demons and saving the world, they’re lighting up the stage with catchy songs such as “Golden.” However, they face their toughest foe yet, the Saja Boys, a demon boy band who are out to steal Huntr/X’s fans and their souls. Through it all, Rumi, who is half-demon, has to face another demon, one of self-acceptance. Arden Cho, May Hong and Ji-young Yoo provide the speaking voices for Rumi, Mira and Zoey, respectively. EJAE, Rei Ami and Audrey Nuna provide the respective singing voices.

EJAE, a K-pop singer, is used to hearing her voice on demo tracks; hearing her voice and the songs played everywhere is taking getting used to. “Hearing it at H Mart on the radio. It’s weird,” she says.

The film’s popularity “hasn’t fully set in” for Cho. At a recent screening, she had a waitlist for her young nieces AND nephews. She understands its mass appeal regardless of age. Cho says, “It allows any human or person to feel like they can relate. It’s like they feel seen.”

The song is written by: EJAE, Mark Sonnenblick, IDO, 24, and TEDDY. IDO, 24, TEDDY, and Ian Eisendrath are the song’s producers.

In the movie, “Golden” sets up the idea of Rumi, Zoey and Mira working to protect the world from demons and seal the honmoon, a barrier separating demons from the real world.

The song blends both English and Korean seamlessly into its lyrics.

Speaking with Variety, EJAE said, “One of the biggest assets I brought to the movie, or when writing the songs, was being bilingual. It was important for our co-director, Maggie Kang, to have Korean in the lyrics, and I just love that it’s not just the verses; it was in the actual song too.”

She went on to say that cracking the actual song took a while. While they had a general idea of what the scene needed, the filmmakers gave a guideline: “It needed to have the word gold in it, and the feeling of what Rumi was going through.” It also needed to introduce the struggles of each member in the verses. She says, “It needed a pep talk and the idea that we can do this together.”

Thematically, it also needed to be empowering and follow the hero’s journey of feeling like an outsider.

In the song, Rumi’s vulnerabilities are revealed – “She’s incredibly hardworking and has that leadership. She puts her best foot forward, but she tries to hide her imperfections and flaws.”

EJAE admits the melody was one of the first things she came up with for the song. “That was the first thing that I came up with.” She confesses, “I actually wrote the melody on my way to the dentist.”

The idea of “gonna be Golden” lyrics came soon after. She took it to Sonnenblick and had mumbled those words to him on the rough takes. His reaction? “Oh my God!” EJAE says the inspiration continued, and they wrote it “super fast.”

EJAE didn’t just relate to Rumi’s struggles; she related to the words she wrote. As a former K-Pop trainee, that experience and pressure were something she tried to drop into the song’s bridge. Once she had that, she says the bridge too came together with ease. “Going through that experience helped a lot in writing and emoting the melody and lyrics.”

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‘KPop Demon Hunters’ Is 2025's Longest Reigning Album
Music

‘KPop Demon Hunters’ Is 2025’s Longest Reigning Album

by jummy84
written by jummy84

It’s the most popular show of them all on Nexflix, and now KPop Demon Hunters can claim to be most popular album in Australia for 2025.

The soundtrack for KPop Demon Hunters clocks up seven consecutive weeks at the top of the ARIA Albums Chart, for the longest reign by any album for the year.

Over on the ARIA Singles Chart, soundtrack hit “Golden” retains top spot for the fifth straight a row, and is one of KPop Demon Hunters songs in the top 10.

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Earlier this week, Netflix announced the animated action/musical had accumulated more than 236 million views since its June 20 premiere, good enough to beat Red Notice and into first place on the streaming platform’s all-time rankings for English-language films.

Laufey leads the new arrivals on the ARIA Chart, published Friday, Aug. 29, as A Matter of Time clocks up a No. 2 debut, the classical-adjacent artist’s career best in Australia.

Deftones complete the podium with Private Music, their 10th studio album. It’s new at No. 3 for the alternative rock heavyweight’s sixth ARIA Top 20 appearance.

Meanwhile, Royel Otis enjoy a second consecutive top 10, as Hickey, their sophomore collection, opens its account at No. 5. That’s a career best for the Sydney duo of Royel Maddell and Otis Pavlovic, after the No. 10 peak for 2024’s Pratts & Pain, winner of four ARIA Awards, including best rock album and best group.

Hickey houses “Moody,” which last month reached No. 1 on Adult Alternative Airplay chart, their first leader on a Billboard chart. “Moody” bested the No. 2 peak of the indie-rock act’s cover of Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s “Murder on the Dancefloor,” which hit No. 2 on Alternative Airplay in July 2024.

Another act with an Australian connection, Stray Kids debut at No. 4 with Karma, for the K-pop boyband’s sixth top 10 appearance in Australia. That tally includes Maxident (No. 4 in 2022), 5-Star (No. 2 in 2023), Rock-Star (No. 2 in 2023), Ate (No. 2 in 2024) and Hop (No. 4 in 2024). Band mate Felix was born and raised in Sydney, while Bang Chan was born in Seoul but also grew up in Sydney.

US country artist Lainey Wilson lassos a new chart peak with Whirlwind, which enters at No. 8 following the release of a deluxe edition. Whirlwind reached No. 19 in August 2024.

Tyler, The Creator’s CHERRY BOMB blows up for a new chart peak of No. 10, eclipsing its best of No. 13 in 2015. Tyler is currently working his way across Australia and New Zealand on the domestic leg of his Chromakopia tour, produced by Frontier Touring, and on Friday opened the flagship GOLF store in Sydney.

Further down the list, British indie rock outfit Wolf Alice snag a No. 14 debut with Clearing, their fourth album, while Bleak Squad, the Melbourne-based “super group” comprising Mick Turner (Dirty Three, Mess Esque), Mick Harvey (Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, PJ Harvey, The Birthday Party), Adalita (Magic Dirt) and Marty Brown (Art of Fighting) are new at No. 40 with Strange Love, their first album.

Finally, the top debut on the ARIA Singles Chart belongs to Doja Cat, whose “Jealous Type” leaps in at No. 28. “Jealous Type” is Doja’s 16th top 50 hit as a solo or featured artist on the ARIA Chart, including “Paint The Town Red,” which logged 10 weeks at No. 1 in 2023.

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'KPop Demon Hunters' Gives Netflix First Box-Office Win
Music

‘KPop Demon Hunters’ Gives Netflix First Box-Office Win

by jummy84
written by jummy84

Netflix appears to have its first No. 1 box-office title in the streaming company’s 18-year history thanks to the sensation of KPop Demon Hunters.

Rival studios on Sunday (Aug. 24) estimated KPop Demon Hunters led all films over the weekend with $16-18 million in ticket sales. Distribution executives from three studios shared their estimates for the Netflix phenomenon on condition of anonymity because the streaming company has a policy of not reporting ticket sales.

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Following a dominating few weeks as one of the most popular Netflix releases ever, the streamer put the film into 1,750 theaters for sing-along screenings Saturday and Sunday. Studios are able to accurately estimate ticket sales for all releases on Sunday morning, though the uncommon nature of the KPop Demon Hunters release means a wider variance. Some estimates were as high as $20 million.

It amounted to a victory lap for KPop Demon Hunters, arguably the biggest hit of Hollywood’s summer, and an ironic success for Netflix, whose emphasis on streaming, not theatrical release, upended the movie industry. Another sore spot for Hollywood: The film was developed and produced by Sony Pictures, which sold it to Netflix.

Not all exhibitors went along. AMC, the largest theater chain in North America, declined to show the movie. But that didn’t stop Netflix from claiming the box-office title its more traditional competitors typically own.

David A. Gross, who runs the movie consulting firm FranchiseRe, called it “a completely unique two-day musical event.”

“It may turn out to be higher,” said Gross. “Theater owners are quick on their feet and can add capacity according to demand.”

The theatrical release, though limited, is out of the ordinary for the streaming giant, which has long stressed a commitment to subscriber releases. The movie debuted on the platform in late June and is currently Netflix’s most-watched animated original film.

The film centers on HUNTR/X, a K-pop superstar trio doubling as demon hunters. The members, Rumi (Arden Cho), Mira (May Hong) and Zooey (Ji-young Yoo), must protect their fans and face their biggest enemy yet: a rival boy band made up of demons in disguise.

Zach Cregger’s horror hit Weapons maintained strength in the box office during its third weekend, bringing in $15.6 million domestically. The buzzy horror movie has proved its staying power, raking in over $100 million globally since its release.

Disney’s Freakier Friday landed behind the horror movie once again, earning $9.2 million in North American theaters.

The two films are “real bright spots” as the box office heads into a “rather quiet finish” for the summer, said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for the data firm Comscore. Both films, which premiered simultaneously earlier this month, had a minimal 36% drop from last weekend.

“I think we have to look at the currency of the goodwill generated by people having these great summer moviegoing experiences,” Dergarabedian said. “We have to look at that as a more important metric than just the bottom-line dollars and cents.”

The Fantastic Four: First Steps earned $5.9 million domestically during its fifth weekend. The movie enjoyed a strong $118 million debut but has experienced a steady decline.

Newcomer Honey Don’t! opened in 1,317 North American theaters with a weekend gross estimate of $3 million, in line with expectations. The movie made it to the top 10, right above The Naked Gun.

The dark comedy stars Margaret Qualley as Honey O’Donahue, a small-town private investigator who investigates a slew of strange deaths tied to a church in Bakersfield, California.

Top 10 movies by domestic box office

With final domestic figures being released Monday, this list factors in the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore:

1. Weapons, $15.6 million
2. Freakier Friday, $9.2 million
3. The Fantastic Four: First Steps, $5.9 million
4. The Bad Guys 2, $5.1 million
5. Nobody 2, $3.7 million
6. Superman, $3.4 million
7. Honey Don’t!, $3 million
8. The Naked Gun, $3 million
9. Jurassic World Rebirth, $2.1 million
10. Relay, $2 million

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What It's Like to Attend a 'KPop Demon Hunters' Sing-Along
TV & Streaming

What It’s Like to Attend a ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ Sing-Along

by jummy84
written by jummy84

Now here’s a first: Two months after dropping “KPop Demon Hunters” on Netflix, the streamer is putting the animated hit in theaters — and not just the cursory Oscar-qualifying run its prestige titles get in New York and Los Angeles. This one is going wide, in more than 1,700 venues, for karaoke-captioned screenings in which audience participation is encouraged.

Dress up! Sing along! Give in to the catchy choreography … that’s how it’s done done done!

I’ve been on the Huntr/x train since the beginning and bought tickets to the first screening of the day at Los Angeles’ Alamo Drafthouse theater, where the house was packed with family audiences. They weren’t just in it for the songs either, but gleefully recited most of the dialogue, too. These kids knew the movie by heart, having watched it countless times at home, and now their parents were spending close to $100 to experience it on the big screen.

Next week, the one-of-a-kind cultural phenomenon — in which a trio of Korean pop stars use the positive energy their songs generate to keep soul-sucking ghouls at bay, until evil demons form a rival boy band to steal their fans — is set to become Netflix’s most-watched movie. Clearly, this exclusive two-day event was willed into existence by popular demand, just as any extension or encore Netflix agrees to would also be.

To the best of my knowledge, nobody was begging Netflix to release a sing-along version of Guillermo del Toro’s “Pinocchio” three years ago (much less “Emilia Pérez,” back when Netflix was treating that film like an Oscar frontrunner). And even though purists wanted to see Alfonso Cuarón’s “Roma” and Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman” in theaters, those movies didn’t sell out nearly as quickly as “KPop Demon Hunters” shows did when Netflix announced its plan last week.

The film is all about fandom, and this unprecedented move from the streaming-first media company suggests that Netflix recognized that the film’s millions-strong audience were craving the collective experience that only cinemas can provide.

Maybe theaters aren’t quite as obsolete as Ted Sarandos would have us believe. Nor is this singular event likely to change how Netflix does business.

First, it’s important to understand what “KPop Demon Hunters” is. Produced by Sony Pictures Animation (the studio behind “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” and “The Mitchells vs. the Machines”), the cleverly executed, computer-animated feature looks every bit as slick as the latest releases from Pixar and DreamWorks … which is to say, it could’ve easily supported a big-screen release in the first place.

But that would’ve meant spending millions of marketing dollars, just to let audiences know of the movie’s existence, in a marketplace where opening weekend makes all the difference and films get chased off screen before they’ve had time to build a following. (That’s one reason Sony started selling its animated features to Netflix, which came to the rescue of “Wish Dragon,” from “KPop” co-director Chris Applehans, amid the pandemic.)

Netflix famously keeps streaming numbers to itself, but it’s safe to say that “KPop Demon Hunters” would not have been nearly the same phenom had it gone the traditional theatrical route. This way, the movie benefited from word of mouth, aggregating more viewers as early adopters told their friends to check it out. That’s a luxury streaming releases have. Rrremember “RRR,” the gonzo Tollywood movie that barely made a ripple in theaters, but gained a following on Netflix?

The best analogy here could be Disney’s animated “Encanto,” which did OK business in theaters (this was 2021, when windows were still compressed in response to the pandemic), but really took off when it hit Disney+ 30 days. Only then did the song “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” blow up with a very similar demographic.

Perhaps the late shows will draw a crowd of older fans, though I loved sitting through the movie with a room full of chatty kids, one of whom was named Zoey (like the eager-to-please Huntr/x rapper, who fights demons with a glowing three-pronged dagger). Zoey and her friends seemed tickled any time her name was spoken.

Back in June, before the film was released, I asked my friendly neighborhood Netflix reps if there was any way to see “KPop Demon Hunters” on the big screen. They declined. (I’d also hoped it might screen at the Annecy Animation Festival, which unspooled the week prior in France, but for some reason, they brought “Fixed” instead.) I can’t be alone in preferring to watch movies in a theater, although Netflix does their best to make that difficult for audiences.

In Los Angeles, that meant opening them at the Bay, the upscale Pacific Palisades theater that shuttered amid the wildfires earlier this year — quite the shlep to watch Zack Snyder’s “Rebel Moon” (clearly better on the big screen) or the latest Adam Sandler movie. Now they sprinkle them into art-houses around town, doing what feels like the bare minimum to meet contractual obligations and Academy Awards rules.

With “KPop Demon Hunters,” they opened in at least two dozen Los Angeles theaters, including major chains like Regal and Cinemark — more than doubling the number of screens the studio offered “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” in 2022. But the data-driven company also knew what they had in this case (what every studio wants): a sure thing.

At the moment, three of the film’s original songs — “Golden,” “Your Idol” and “Soda Pop” — sit among the top 10 of Billboard’s Hot 100 chart. And judging by the reaction in the room, “Takedown” (which TWICE sings over the end credits, and the audience couldn’t resist echoing) could soon join their ranks.

Netflix has a full slate of big-screen-worthy movies coming this fall, including Sundance marvel “Train Dreams,” Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein” and Kathryn Bigelow’s “A House of Dynamite,” but however many millions “KPop Demon Hunters” earns this weekend, that doesn’t mean the streamer will rush to open those films wide.

To repeat this experiment, they’d need another proven success with a built-in audience willing to pay to rewatch a film they first saw on streaming. Netflix has the numbers to indicate what time of year certain movies are popular. Maybe a Christmas release of last year’s “Carry On” could work.

Or maybe this is a unicorn event for which we should simply be grateful: For two days only, nonsubscribers can see “KPop Demon Hunters,” surrounded by singing groupies whose enthusiasm willed the streaming phenomenon onto the big screen.

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