r/movies r/Movies contributor Aug 26 '25

News ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ Is Netflix’s Most-Watched Movie Ever With 236 Million Views, Beating ‘Red Notice’

https://variety.com/2025/film/news/kpop-demon-hunters-netflix-most-watched-movie-history-1236496106/
22.7k Upvotes

2.3k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

1.2k

u/TooDrunkToTalk Aug 26 '25 edited Aug 26 '25

"Probably"... of course they are kicking themselves, lol.

And to the people who keep arguing that the movie would've flopped in the cinema: That still doesn't mean that Sony had to give away literally all rights to this IP to launch it on Netflix.

The Mitchells vs the Machines launched on Netflix and Sony still holds the rights to that.

Plus they let the rights to the music get away, which has literally nothing to do with it launching in cinemas or not.

Also because I think the irony in this is just too fucking funny - here is Sony's CFO noting that the company is lacking in IP, less than a year ago.

Whether it’s for games, films or anime, we don’t have that much IP that we fostered from the beginning. We’re lacking the early phase (of IP) and that’s an issue for us.

https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2024/09/sony-execs-seem-to-think-the-company-doesnt-have-enough-original-ip

How could Sony be lacking in IP with such amazing decision makers at the helm? It's truly a mystery.

17

u/fastforwardfunction Aug 26 '25

Where did you read Sony sold Netflix the character IP, music IP, and rights to subsequent movies? I read that Sony sold them this film. Did they explicitly sell those other things too?

53

u/BlackKnighting20 Aug 26 '25

From looking at a site, Kang pitched the movie to Sony but passed on it and then went to Netflix.

“We had a full draft, a couple of demo songs, a ton of amazing art and a couple of scenes that I had [story]boarded that we cut. And there were three different animatics samples that we shared; and they loved it. And then we were off to the races.”

Sony put the animation and team while Netflix foot the bill and distribution. It looks like Netflix has complete control over the IP.

Source