Netflix's Record-Breaking Fantasy Hit Battles For Box Office Dominance In Slow Halloween Weekend

KPop Demon Hunters could score another huge win at the box office over Halloween weekend. The smash hit fantasy musical, which follows KPop superstars who fight demons, has broken numerous records since it debuted on Netflix on June 20.

This includes becoming Netflix’s most-watched movie of all time by amassing 325.1 million views in its first 91 days. Additionally, multiple songs from the KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack have charted on the Billboard Hot 100, including the fictional band Huntr/x’s “Golden,” which became the first-ever song by a KPop girl group to hit No. 1.

Now, KPop Demon Hunters is returning to theaters after playing for one weekend of special sing-along screenings in August, during which it hit No. 1 at the domestic box office. Per Deadline, the movie will be playing in 2,890 theaters over the weekend. While it is not currently projected to hit No. 1, it is in a neck-and-neck race for the top spot.

Currently, KPop Demon Hunters is projected to earn a 3-day total of $6 million over the weekend, which is expected to be quiet because Halloween falls on a Friday this year. However, the titles currently jockeying for No. 1 – the Colleen Hoover romance Regretting You and the horror sequel Black Phone 2 – are only estimated to reach roughly $7 million apiece.

All three movies in contention for hitting No. 1 over Halloween weekend are holdover titles. While KPop Demon Hunters is the oldest, having been available on streaming for more than four months, Black Phone 2 will be entering its third weekend while Regretting You is kicking off its second.

Black Phone 2 could potentially get a boost on Halloween night, because it is the newest major horror movie in theaters on the holiday. However, horror titles can drop off quickly as soon as Halloween is over, as evidenced by 2023’s Five Nights at Freddy’s dropping a staggering 76.2% during its sophomore weekend, which took place over the weekend of November 3.

If KPop Demon Hunters is able to surge ahead of its early projections, which it did during its first weekend in theaters, it could easily take the No. 1 spot for the second time this year.

While it remains to be seen if the movie can still be a draw after being available at home for even longer than before, it still has an edge over the competition. This is because KPop Demon Hunters reviews have been glowing, earning the movie a near-perfect Rotten Tomatoes score of 95%, besting Black Phone 2‘s solid 73% and Regretting You‘s dismal 28%.

Also, enthusiasm for KPop Demon Hunters has not waned significantly since its debut. In fact, the movie recently made news because the demand for Halloween costumes based on the movie’s characters far outweighed the supply, because Netflix and production company Sony Pictures Animation failed to anticipate exactly how much of a runaway hit the movie would turn out to be.

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