While it was cool to be in the “I was into KPop Demon Hunters before it blew up” camp, I haven’t had a lot to add to the conversation about the “moment” the film is having (🎼…You know together we’re glowin’, Gonna be, gonna be golden…🎶), the cultural impact, or the economics of the deal with Sony Animation. This is pretty well-covered ground by now.
I want to focus on a different metric. One that guides my decision making of which movies to physically buy (like on Blu-Ray), buy digital only, or play the slot machine of “which service is this currently on?” when I want to watch it. This ties into what’s making Rumi, Mira, & Zoey among the most famous singers on Earth right now. (Mira is my favorite - love her!)
The Rewatch Refresh Rate
How much I’ll rewatch something is my “buy” decision maker. This is not always tied to the box office, awards success, or even quality of a film, but my modern equivalent of channel surfing and knowing I’d stop and watch the rest of it – or how often I’d stop and watch it again.
Just a few examples based on my tastes and library. YMMV, but you get the premise:
🔁 Real Genius. Not a big box office success, early Val Kilmer, but I can recite every word of this movie and will recommend it to anyone I can. Endlessly re-watchable!
⏹️ Up. A huge movie during peak Pixar. Beautiful, poignant, but the first 15 minutes are a gut-wrenching tear-fest. I’ve maybe seen the whole thing 3 times - including in the theater. Almost un-rewatchable.
🔂 The Grand Budapest Hotel. Grand visuals. Grand characters. Grand acting. Grand film to have on in the background. The easy rewatch of most Wes Anderson films.
⏹️ A Star is Born. Fantastic acting and great music. I’d argue that “The Shallows” has twice the musical goosebump power of “Golden” – but the story doesn’t make me want to revisit that world.
∞ Most of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (through Endgame). Comic characters brought to life in a way that resonated with fans by people who actually understood those comics. Easter eggs and clues to future or side stories could be found in a 5th or 6th rewatch. A big cohesive story universe that was more intricate than anything ever attempted – so going back to an older film to see the connections to a newer one made for an even higher rewatch value.
⏹️ Oppenheimer. A visually brilliant movie with amazing performances. Nolan at the top of his game and everyone should see it – once. Personally, I’m not sure how many times I need to revisit the behind the scenes drama of the first weaponized nuke.
Now, Netflix is very clearly motivated by keeping you subscribed to the service. Whether that’s 1000 movies you’ll watch one time or 1 movie you’ll watch 1000 times, as long as you stay. Of course, the latter is the best scenario for ROI – and that’s what they have in “KPop Demon Hunters” right now. The success for Netflix is in the re-watchability of the film.
“Four quadrant” story, catchy tunes, lovable animals, a bit anime, visually innovative, accurate cultural reflection, and more . It has played no less than 50 times in my house – so far. There’s that cha-ching!
That’s a VERY different bar for success than a most other theatrical releases. I suspect had KPop been dropped in theaters, it would not have had the theatrical window to build up the word-of-mouth hype. We might instead be talking about “Soda Pop” as a cult classic tune, a missed cultural breakout opportunity, and “wouldn’t this have done better going straight to streaming?”
Note: The CEO of Sony basically took this same position after I’d wrote this.
Retrospective
It’s easy to be “WTF” to Sony Animation over the Kpop deal now, but zoom out and rewind. Getting $20 million on top of production costs for an original IP movie - whose premise on paper looks absolutely ridiculous – was probably a no brainer. It’s also worth noting while it’s maybe a business miss, Sony Animation has become the innovative animation shop of the era while Pixar seems to only be innovating in bean-shaped people. The Spider-Verse movies alone should have sent every large animation shop into a deep re-evaluation of their whole approach - from story to tech.
Side note: “The Mitchells vs the Machines” is also a bit slept on and I have Genndy Tartakovsky’s “Fixed” in my queue. Both are on Netflix and both were made by Sony Animation.
KPop-mania should also HOPEFULLY encourage studios to greenlight more original stories – instead of endlessly rebooting, remaking, and pumping out sequels. Disney’s already on the look-out, trying to win back the Gen-Z male audience with original IP. (We’ve got a few projects they should look at.)
Let’s all hope this leads to some great stories and not just KPop derivatives like “String Band Blues Sasquatch Squad” or “Punk Rock Paranormal Protectors.”
Reach out and let’s talk about collaborating on a great and original story universe.