New Phenomenon “KPop Demon Hunters”

The animated film “KPop Demon Hunters” was released on Netflix on June 20 and quickly achieved record-breaking results. After 5 weeks of release, the film reached more than 106 million views in 93 countries and territories. The film still maintains its appeal when in the 6th week, it had an additional 26.3 million views.

“KPop Demon Hunters” has a new, unique storyline, telling the story of HUNTR/X, a K-pop girl group in Seoul, who uses the energy of music to fight supernatural forces. HUNTR/X directly confronts the villainous group Saja Boys, evil spirits in the form of 5 boys.

Critic Tamar Herman said that the film succeeded because it balanced the musical tradition of animation with the style of K-pop production. The hallmarks are the musical-like experiences from the Jukebox (automatic music player), the atmosphere has the color of international music performances. The film created the effect of creative movements on social platforms such as: TikTok, Instagram ... or art communities, online forums - where fans share drawings, cover videos , cosplay and dances inspired by the film.

“KPop Demon Hunters” has created the success of two virtual bands HUNTR/X (pictured) and Saja Boys. The film’s theme song “Golden” ranked first on the Billboard Global 200 chart, while the film’s soundtrack topped the Billboard Soundtrack chart and entered the Top 8 of the Billboard 200 chart. In addition, 8 songs performed by the two bands appeared on the Billboard Hot 100. 7 songs from the film were in the list of 15 songs with the highest number of online listens per day on Spotify US. This is a rare achievement in the animated film genre, and also a record for a virtual band. Moreover, many K-pop bands in the international market also find it difficult to achieve the above milestones, especially in the UK - US market.

Singer Kevin Woo, who voices the male character Mystery in “KPop Demon Hunters,” has also suddenly become more famous. The success of the character Mystery has helped Kevin Woo attract about 20 million online listens to his music on Spotify, while previously it was only a few tens of thousands. With the success of the character Mystery, Kevin Woo has the opportunity to expand his musical activities internationally, quickly approaching the US market.

“KPop Demon Hunters” has created a phenomenon and Netflix decided to take advantage of its success to create more products from this brand. Ted Sarandos, co-CEO of Netflix, said that “KPop Demon Hunters” is a long-term brand asset, similar to Disney’s princess series. Netflix will have investments to expand from the original story. Accordingly, “KPop Demon Hunters” will have 2 animated sequels and a live-action version. At the same time, there will be additional short films released between the main films.

BAO LAM (Synthesized from The Wall Street Journal, BBC, Billboard)

Source: https://baocantho.com.vn/hien-tuong-moi-kpop-demon-hunters--a189406.html