‘KPop Demon Hunters’ Tops the Box Office

The streaming service doesn’t report box office numbers, so horror ‘Weapons’ is still technically number one. Yet the animated hit still performed well.

'KPop Demon Hunters'. Photo: Netflix/©2025 Netflix.

Preview:

‘KPop Demon Hunters’ is the technical winner of this week’s box office.
The movie has been on Netflix for two months but landed in theaters for a sing-along version.
‘Weapons’ also continues to do well.

Netflix is not traditionally a company that releases its movies on the big screen, preferring to drive people towards the app on TVs and elsewhere. There have been exceptions –– award-worthy movies scored short qualifying theatrical runs and Greta Gerwig negotiated an IMAX run for her in-the-works ‘Narnia' effort.

But there hasn’t been anything like ‘KPop Demon Hunters’, the story of a K-pop superstar girl group who also just so happen to save the world from demonic forces, which has been on the streaming services servers for two months now, surging to become the second-most watched movie on the platform, with some of its songs soaring into download charts.

KPop Demon Hunters

"They sing. They dance. They battle demons."

PGFantasy Animation Action Comedy Music

Audience
Score

Release Date: Aug 23, 2025

Run Time: 1 hr 36 min

Budget: $100,000,000

Starring: Arden Cho, May Hong, Ji-young Yoo

Watch KPop Demon Hunters Online

Netflix decided to ride the movie’s popularity, and released it as a “sing-along” version on 1,700 screens across North America (and more internationally), scoring a reported figure of between $18-$20 million, which makes it the highest grossing release of the weekend. But there’s an asterisk…

Was ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ really top of the charts?

Here’s where things get more complicated. Since Netflix doesn’t release box office figures and wouldn’t comment about ‘Demon Hunters’ actual earnings, the data comes via exhibition sources and rival studios with access to certain data.

So the actual, final tally may never be known.

Which means that Zach Cregger’s successful horror pic ‘Weapons’ technically counts as the top earner for the weekend with $15.6 million from 3,631 cinemas in its third week for an impressive global total of nearly $200 million, through Sunday.

What else happened at the box office this weekend?

(L to R) Julia Garner as Justine and Josh Brolin as Archer in New Line Cinema’s 'Weapons,' a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Quantrell Colbert. Copyright: © 2025 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.

If we are to fully count ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ as the top of the charts, that makes ‘Weapons’ a strong second place.

Disney’s ‘Freakier Friday’ fell to third place, making $9.2 million for a global total of $112.3 million.

Fourth was ‘Fantastic Four: First Steps’, which despite early promise hasn’t really lived up to Marvel’s hopes. It took in $5.9 million for a current global total of $490.1 million.

And in fifth, we find animated outing ‘The Bad Guys 2’, which made $5.1 million and had earned $149.1 million globally.

In other box office news, Apple’s ‘F1’, the Brad Pitt-starring racing drama, roared past $600 million worldwide this weekend to become the most successful original movie of 2025.

Can I watch the Sing-Along version of ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ at home?

You can! In a move that surprised few, Netflix announced that the sing-along version of the movie would arrive on servers on Monday August 25th, so by the time you’re reading this, you’d be able to go and sing along to “Golden” or ‘Takedown” in the comfort of your own home (though from the viewing figures, plenty of you were already doing that).