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‘KPop Demon Hunters’ Exorcises Competition at the Box Office

Netflix’s animation sensation appeared in theaters for just one weekend.

Netflix’s hit musical KPop Demon Hunters dominated the box offices in its first and only weekend in theaters, generating nearly $20 million and beating out the horror mystery Weapons for first place. While Netflix isn’t reporting grosses, rival studios project that ticket sales for the Netflix film placed it ahead of Weapons, which made $15.6 million in its third weekend. The sing-along fantasy film sold out in roughly 1,150 of the 1,700 screens it played in, sources told Variety. The movie follows the plot of a K-pop girl group trio that live secret lives as demon hunters who protect the world with their songs. The Netflix original was released on the streaming service on June 20, but by the next month, Netflix announced that the flick became its “most-watched original animated film of all time.” After its worldwide success, the streaming platform announced it would release the sing-along version to theaters for just one weekend on Aug. 23 and 24. The songs from the fictional K-pop groups also propelled the movie’s success—the Kpop Demon Hunters soundtrack scored more than 3 billion global streams to date, outperforming real k-pop groups like BTS and Blackpink.