Netflix's Record-Breaking Hit Beats New Halloween Releases Amid Regretting You & Black Phone 2 Box Office Battle

KPop Demon Hunters has bested Halloween weekend’s new releases, but another No. 1 win is not in its sights. The fantasy musical, which debuted on Netflix on June 20, has since become the streaming platform’s most-watched movie of all time. It has shattered other records as well.

In addition to “Golden” becoming the first song by a KPop girl group (fictional or otherwise) to hit No. 1 in the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S., four tracks from the KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack landed in the Top 10 simultaneously, which is the first time this has ever happened for a movie soundtrack. When it hit theaters for a one-weekend sing-along presentation, the movie also became Netflix’s first No. 1 theatrical release ever.

Per Variety, as of Saturday morning, KPop Demon Hunters (which has returned to theaters in sing-along form over Halloween weekend) is projected to earn a 3-day total of $3.4 million by the end of its second nonconsecutive weekend at the domestic box office.

While it is not expected to top the chart this time, KPop Demon Hunters has defeated the new releases that have descended into theaters over a quiet Halloween. This includes the Indian movie Baahubali: The Epic and the wide expansion of Yorgos Lanthimos’ Bugonia, which stars Emma Stone and earned a Certified Fresh 86% score on Rotten Tomatoes.

The only movies expected to outdo KPop Demon Hunters are holdover titles, namely Regretting You (an adaptation of the romance novel of the same name by It Ends with Us author Colleen Hoover) and Black Phone 2 (Blumhouse’s sequel to their hit 2022 Joe Hill adaptation).

The movies, which both star How to Train Your Dragon breakout Mason Thames, have been locked in a head-to-head battle with early projections showing them both earning roughly $7 million. Black Phone 2 has pulled ahead with 3-day projections of $7.6 million, per Variety.

Regretting You is slowing down sooner than expected, with projections being adjusted to $6.6 million, marking a 51% week-on-week drop after it debuted with a lukewarm $13.7 million.

All in all, though there has been some excitement in the race for No. 1 over Halloween weekend, the holiday falling on a Friday combined with studios eschewing new tentpole releases has resulted in one of the quietest domestic box office weekends of the year.

In fact, no title is expected to earn an eight-figure number or higher, which will mark the first time that this has happened in more than seven months, since the weekend of March 14.

That weekend was led by the Jack Quaid action-comedy Novocaine ($8.8 million), Steven Soderbergh’s spy film Black Bag ($7.6 million), and the second weekend of Bong Joon Ho’s sci-fi movie Mickey 17 ($7.4 million).

As KPop Demon Hunters‘ draw diminishes months after its streaming premiere, the box office will have to wait until later in November to have an influx of cash. Luckily, a wide variety of promising IP tentpoles are coming soon, including Predator: Badlands, The Running Man, Wicked: For Good, and Zootopia 2.

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