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I think the intellectual property belongs to Sony, and it's rumored that only the first film sold. If a sequel is made, cinemas can be built.

 

[MarcKyle1964]

Has anyone actually seen KPop Demon Hunters. I put it in my queue mainly because a YouTube movie critic that I follow did a deep dive on it and the success it was making. Seems like this will go down as one of the more successful entertainment stories of the year.

This is the very first I've heard of it. I hope the soundtrack for the eps is entertaining.

 

[oktay]

This is the very first I've heard of it. I hope the soundtrack for the eps is entertaining.

this movie

 

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[BillJ]

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I’ve never even heard of this before.

 

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Natalie Portman Says Queen Amidala and Jackie O. Would Both Wear Dior’s New Perfume

“I think that combination of being able to be a strong leader and true to your ideals and also romantic is the essence of the essence.”

www.harpersbazaar.com

 

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The Tragedy of ‘KPop Demon Hunters’

Sony Pictures really needed a big box office hit this summer. Instead, the studio sold the sensation of the season to Netflix and will earn only a tiny fraction of what will likely become a billion-dollar franchise for the streamer.

puck.news

The Tragedy of ‘KPop Demon Hunters’
Sony Pictures really needed a big box office hit this summer. Instead, the studio sold the sensation of the season to Netflix and will earn only a tiny fraction of what will likely become a billion-dollar franchise for the streamer. How did that happen?


Man, Sony Pictures has suffered through a pretty brutal summer at the box office. It’s the only major Hollywood studio that didn’t release a $500 million–grossing movie from May through August—and it wasn’t even close. The highest-earning Sony release for the entire year so far, 28 Years Later, has generated just $150 million worldwide. Ouch. Next summer’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day can’t come fast enough.

But Sony Pictures did make one of the biggest movie sensations of the summer—a project from its animation division that cost more than $100 million to produce and will likely become a billion-dollar franchise, spawning sequels, spinoffs, music sales, Halloween costumes, and all the trimmings of a big fat Hollywood studio hit. It’s just that most of that value has and will accrue to Netflix because the movie is KPop Demon Hunters, and Sony offloaded it rather than develop it solo and release it in theaters. There are good reasons why Tom Rothman, the Sony film chief and self-styled king of the theatrical release, went the streaming route here. But still, he’s gotta be kicking himself over this one. (Sony declined to comment.)


Have you seen the numbers? Released in June, the anime-style musical adventure about a K-pop trio who moonlight fighting underworld monsters generated another 25.9 million views this week, according to Netflix, and is now No. 2 on its all-time Top 10 list for English-language films. If this trajectory holds, as Netflix believes it will, Demon Hunters will soon pass Red Notice and its 230.9 million views to become the most-watched original film ever on the platform. At the same time, the soundtrack, featuring the fictitious band HUNTR/X and real life K-pop group Twice, currently boasts seven songs in the top 20 on Spotify’s global Top 50 list. “Golden,” an insanely catchy anthem, just hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.


If you have a kid at home, like I do, he or she is likely talking about nothing else. After more than a decade in the movie business, this is arguably Netflix’s first animated megahit after many, many attempts. It’s still not quite as zeitgeisty as the biggest theatrical blockbusters, in my opinion, but it’s about as close as a movie can come without theaters. And, as we know, the animated hits can keep giving and giving. Disney favorites like Moana and Encanto still pop up in the weekly Nielsen charts thanks to rewatches. I asked John Mass, president of Content Partners, which buys and sells film libraries, to estimate how much KPop Demon Hunters will ultimately be worth to Netflix. “It’s impossible to put a value on this franchise,” he told me, “but given the viewership numbers and plans for sequels and spinoffs, and the popularity of the music, it may end up being comparable to the Disney animated hits.”
Great for Netflix. Not as great for Sony, which is making only about $20 million on KPop Demon Hunters, according to sources familiar with its deal. Not nothing, of course, but that’s less than many established movie stars make for Netflix films, and Sony actually conceived, developed, and produced the film. In addition, while Sony has the contractual right to produce any sequels or spinoffs—and, indeed, I confirmed that the studio has just started negotiating with directors Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans to return for a follow-up—it will make no additional money from the runaway success of the first film, except it has the right to release it in China, where Netflix doesn’t operate, if the government allows it in. There’s no backend, and Netflix has no obligation to renegotiate on the follow-up films. (Though I’m betting Netflix throws Sony a few bones here.)

The fee-for-service model in streaming is familiar to many frustrated producers, and the story of KPop Demon Hunters is a variation on the Suits issue from last year, where Netflix acquired a property cheap and turned it into a phenomenon. But Sony isn’t just a production company, it’s a full-fledged studio with an experienced theatrical distribution apparatus. So why didn’t Sony release this movie itself? It came down to the timing of the deal. KPop Demon Hunters was in development at Sony Pictures Animation in 2021, when the company signed a massive “Pay One” output deal with Netflix for its theatrical films. Concurrently, Sony forged a separate “direct-to-platform” arrangement with Netflix, agreeing to offer a first look at certain live-action and animated film projects, and Netflix guaranteed to greenlight a minimum number that the two companies would develop together and Netflix would release and control. Per the custom at the time, Sony would be paid a prenegotiated premium on top of the budgets for the films. Sources familiar with the deal tell me it was 25 percent of the budgets, capped at $20 million per film. Netflix would keep all the rights and pay no profit participation.

Back in 2021, this was a good deal for both sides. Remember, most movie theaters were still closed due to the pandemic, decimating the theatrical business. Sony doesn’t have its own mass-market streamer, and as a so-called “arms dealer,” it aggressively offloaded movies it had made to the highest bidder—stuff like Tom Hanks’s Greyhound and the animated The Mitchells vs. the Machines. By making a guaranteed number of new movies for Netflix, Rothman was able to keep money flowing into the studio and avoid layoffs.

And even if the Netflix deal generated a hit or two that might have been successful as a Sony theatrical release, the deal also included a mandate to buy movies that would not be “theatrical” and might not have found any audience, giving Sony guaranteed upside at perhaps the low point of the theatrical business. For instance, that Netflix deal generated a Lady Chatterley’s Lover remake that Sony probably wouldn’t have made for theaters. People We Meet on Vacation, a rom-com adaptation of a popular novel, is coming next year. So by jumping into bed with Netflix, Rothman was taking the safer path.

And who knew KPop Demon Hunters would become… KPop Demon Hunters? The project was initially brought into Netflix by Melissa Cobb, a V.P. of original animation who has since left the company. Its director, Kang, worked on the project for years, even before she was joined by animation veteran Appelhans. Sony served as the producer on the film, with its Sony Pictures Imageworks unit, run by Michelle Grady, actually generating the animation, and Netflix overseeing as the studio.

During the process, Hannah Minghella, who joined Netflix last year to oversee animation and family films (ironically, she once worked at Sony for 15 years), brought in Twice, a popular K-pop band, to perform a couple songs. (Twice is signed to Republic Records, a Universal Music label, meaning Sony’s music arm also missed out on revenue from the music streams.) Minghella also oversaw tweaks to the beginning of the movie, which is crucial for Netflix, given the fickle streaming audience. The film tested very well with women, particularly younger females, but even Netflix executives have been shocked by the numbers on the service.

The billion-dollar question: Would KPop Demon Hunters have actually been a hit in theaters? Most film people I’ve spoken to over the past two weeks believe the answer is likely no, especially with that nine-figure budget. Original animation has struggled in theaters post-Covid, and with the exception of the SpiderVerse films, the edgier, anime-style look and feel of Demon Hunters typically does not resonate with a broad theatrical audience, especially in this country.

No disrespect to Millie Bobby Brown, but if you look at the Netflix all-time Top 10, many of the films do not feel “theatrical” in the modern sense. Meaning what people will watch on Netflix for “free” isn’t what they will pay to see in theaters. Plus, the film started slow on Netflix and steadily built its audience via viral chatter, consumption of the music, and the platform’s algorithm—all of which, time after time, have proven able to create huge hits. The younger Netflix audience adopted Demon Hunters as its own and is now rewatching it and rewatching it all the way to No. 1. I asked Kevin Goetz, the movie researcher and test-screening guru who counts both Netflix and Sony as clients, whether he thought Demon Hunters would have performed in theaters. “In hindsight it seems like an obvious hit,” he told me, “but I would argue that Netflix is responsible for this movie entering the cultural zeitgeist.”

Not sure I totally agree. The movie started slowly on Netflix, but a traditional Sony theatrical campaign could have sold the film on its catchy music and promoted it well to the target audience in advance. Remember, Sony gradually built a theatrical hit out of Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell in short shorts in Anyone But You, so perhaps it could have turned Demon Hunters into a summer sleeper, especially since there was zero animated competition. Disney’s Elio flopped, Universal’s The Bad Guys 2 had smaller aspirations, and both How to Train Your Dragon and Lilo & Stitch were “live-action” family films. That’s part of the reason Netflix picked June 20 as the release date.

The more likely scenario if Sony had put Demon Hunters in theaters is that it would have performed okay—not great, maybe stronger in Asian territories—and then eventually exploded on Netflix in the Pay One window. But if that had happened, the inevitable sequel likely would have gone to theaters and—now armed with a massive fan base—grossed hundreds of millions of dollars for Sony. Now, thanks to that 2021 deal, the follow-up movies will go directly to Netflix, barring the unlikely event of co-C.E.O. Ted Sarandos suddenly coming around on theaters.

For Netflix film chief Dan Lin, this is a studio chairman’s dream: A relatively cheap superhit with a clear runway for exploitation across many businesses. Think about it: Netflix now owns a fictitious rock band with millions of fans. They don’t complain, they don’t owe military service, and many of the voice talents are not famous and don’t have much leverage for renegotiations. Again, great for Netflix. Not as great for Sony.

Sony likes to say that it “won” the streaming wars by sitting them out and refusing to shovel money into the furnace of a mass-market service. But here’s an instance where the incentive to sell to the highest bidder ended up causing Sony to potentially leave massive amounts of money on the table, at least for this one title. Other vertically integrated entertainment companies would probably have held on to a theatrical window for a project that its execs believed could be successful, or hedged by sending it directly to its owned-and-operated streamer. In either scenario, a direct-to-streaming sequel then could be elevated to theaters if desired. Remember, Disney developed Moana 2 as a Disney+ series, then refashioned it as a theatrical film and it grossed $1 billion.

In a twist, Netflix is now putting a “sing-along” version of KPop Demon Hunters in 1,100 theaters next weekend for a two-day special event. As of tonight, I’m told there are more than 300 sold-out showings, with theaters asking for additional dates. No, Netflix is not sharing any of the box office revenue with Sony.

 

[tomalak301]

I did just watch KPop Demon Hunters. I actually enjoyed it and the music was catchy. Also, I thought the animation in the Spiderman films can get overwhelming sometimes, but I enjoyed it in this movie.

This was also the video that finally got me to watch the film:

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[Mudd]

The Tragedy of ‘KPop Demon Hunters’

Sony Pictures really needed a big box office hit this summer. Instead, the studio sold the sensation of the season to Netflix and will earn only a tiny fraction of what will likely become a billion-dollar franchise for the streamer.

puck.news

The billion-dollar question: Would KPop Demon Hunters have actually been a hit in theaters? Most film people I’ve spoken to over the past two weeks believe the answer is likely no, especially with that nine-figure budget. Original animation has struggled in theaters post-Covid, and with the exception of the SpiderVerse films, the edgier, anime-style look and feel of Demon Hunters typically does not resonate with a broad theatrical audience, especially in this country.

And even if the Netflix deal generated a hit or two that might have been successful as a Sony theatrical release, the deal also included a mandate to buy movies that would not be “theatrical” and might not have found any audience, giving Sony guaranteed upside at perhaps the low point of the theatrical business. For instance, that Netflix deal generated a Lady Chatterley’s Lover remake that Sony probably wouldn’t have made for theaters. People We Meet on Vacation, a rom-com adaptation of a popular novel, is coming next year. So by jumping into bed with Netflix, Rothman was taking the safer path.

 

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[Mudd]

If i had to bet on someone's judgment it'd be Greta's over Luis's by a thousand miles. His is an extraordinarily patronizing post.

 

[oktay]

If i had to bet on someone's judgment it'd be Greta's over Luis's by a thousand miles. His is an extraordinarily patronizing post.

I think the directors who work with Netflix know what they're signing up for. That's why I think they know they can't change Netflix even if they try.

 

[oktay]

AAPI-Led Series ‘Ballard’, ‘Butterfly’ & ‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’ Rule Prime Video Trending TV List As Diverse, Female-Focused Content Shines On Streaming

Prime Video is celebrating their top TV shows, which are all led by AAPI talent, proving theirs still a hunger for DEI and female-led content.

deadline.com

 

[oktay]

Every Netflix Movie Getting A Sequel in 2025 and Beyond

Netflix has a number of high-profile sequels on the way.

www.whats-on-netflix.com

Every Netflix Movie Getting A Sequel in 2025 and Beyond

Netflix has a number of high-profile sequels on the way.

Netflix has had a lot of success with movie sequels in recent years, from Fear Street to Knives Out and Extraction. There are plenty more in the pipeline, too. In this post, we bring you up to date with all upcoming sequels, as well as the status of other proposed movies.

Nowadays, more than ever, the movie industry is built on sequels. And not just sequels either; there’s spinoffs of sequels; sequels of spinoffs of sequels. We’re looking at you, Marvel. As for Netflix, its movie franchises aren’t too convoluted yet. In fact, the streamer has an exciting slate of sequel movies coming our way in the remainder of 2025 and beyond. Let’s take a tour.

Troll 2
Release date: December 1, 2025

Norwegian fantasy movie Troll was a breakout hit for Netflix when it premiered in 2022. In fact, the picture became Netflix’s biggest international movie of all time. The movie is very much your typical giant monster flick. In this case, it’s a troll, a creature ingrained in fantasy folklore, who unveils himself in Norway after being trapped for over 1000 years. Enraged, he destroys everything in his path, sparking national alarm. As the troll destroys his way through the Norwegian countryside, nearing the capital of Oslo, the residents must prepare for his attack.


Troll 2 is one of Netflix’s most anticipated remaining projects of 2025. The film retains the same creative forces that made its debut a success, including director Roar Uthaug and writer Espen Aukan.

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery
Release date: December 12, 2025

Director Rian Johnson has hit a home run with his clever, mystery Knives Out movies, and the latest instalment, Wake Up Dead Man, appears to be another standout success. The movie, which saw Daniel Craig reprise his role as master detective Benoit Blanc, had its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in September 2025, and critics are raving about it. For instance, a BBC review called it “funniest and most playful” mystery yet.

The Rats: A Witcher’s Tale
Release date: Expected in 2025

While not inherently a ‘sequel,’ it’s worth mentioning The Rats. The case of The Rats is incredibly interesting, to say the least. Based on a group of characters introduced at the end of The Witcher season 3, the project was initially developed as a miniseries. However, the show went through production hell, with sources close to the production calling it ‘unreleasable’.


Details on the project went silent very quickly, with many believing it to be dead. But according to a report from Redanian Intelligence, The Rats may still see a release in the form of a feature-length movie. Apparently, it could arrive as early as late 2025.

Enola Holmes 3
Status: Filming complete

After making her breakout in Stranger Things, one of Millie Bobby Brown’s first roles as a lead was Enola Holmes, where she plays the witty and rebellious younger sister of Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes.


Based on the best-selling novels by Nancy Springer, Enola Holmes first debuted in 2020 and returned for a sequel in 2022. Enola Holmes 3 wrapped filming in July 2025. Described as a more mature story compared to its predecessors, the movie switches up location and takes place in Malta.

Enola Holmes 3 doesn’t have a release date yet. It is expected to premiere sometime in 2026.

The Gray Man 2
Status: In development

When it comes to big-budget Netflix films, The Gray Man is definitely one of the most polarising. Releasing in 2022, the $200 million movie boasted an all-star cast including Ryan Gosling, Ana de Armas, and Chris Evans. It was also helmed by acclaimed Avengers: Endgame directors Anthony and Joe Russo. It had a lot going for it, but reviews were extremely mixed.

Even so, the franchise is far from over. As of March 2025, co-director Joe Russo confirmed that ideas for a sequel are being discussed. “We’re developing concepts we think are the right direction to take the character in and so, we are working on that at the moment,” he told Screen Rant. “I mean, you’re juggling like 14 things at the same time so you have to apportion your time correctly to each one of them.”

With no release date in sight, it could be a while before The Gray Man returns to our screens… if it ever does.

Extraction 3
Status: In development

Netflix confirmed that Extraction 3 was officially happening during its June 2023 Tudum event. Since then, progress has been slow. There’s also a TV spinoff in the works. As for the threequel movie, we’ll see star Chris Hemsworth reprise his role as Tyler Rake, facing off against an all-new antagonist.


Despite limited updates, Hemsworth did weigh in on the project back in August 2025. “We, the creative team, are putting together some different ideas and creative ventures of where we could take the whole place and the [third] film. But the intention is to certainly make another one. I don’t know exactly when, but yeah, it’ll be coming,” he teased.

There’s currently no release window for the movie. It’s likely that we’ll see the spinoff TV show before the next movie.

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The Sea Beast 2
Status: In Production

in 2022. The movie followed monster hunter Jacob Holland (Karl Urban) and his adopted daughter, Maisie Brumble (Zaris-Angel Hator). The first movie garnered over 165 million hours viewed in its first 5 months, making it one of the streamer’s most celebrated animated movies.

A sequel to The Sea Beast is officially in development with director Chris Williams attached to return. Beyond that, there are no significant updates, as is often the case with animated titles.

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Leo 2
Status: In Production

Leo, until 2025, stood as Netflix’s most-watched animated movie premiere of all time, and that led to a rather quiet commission of a second movie that’s now in production. The first movie, buoyed by its voice performances led by Adam Sandler, followed a classroom lizard who is over 7 decades old and, upon being told he has one year left to live, goes out on a big adventure.

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Red Notice 2 & 3
Status: Expected to film in 2026

When it comes to all-star casts, it perhaps doesn’t get any bigger than the trio of Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds, and Gal Gadot. The three teamed up for Red Notice, a high-octane spy movie that sees FBI agent John Hartley (Johnson) cross paths with two cunning art thieves, played by Gadot and Reynolds. It’s a heist like no other. From big stunts to epic drawn-out action sequences, it’s all there.


Red Notice debuted back in 2021. Soon after the movie was released and it rocked the all-time top 10 for several years, Netflix not only picked up one sequel, but two. Since that renewal, though, all has gone quiet. That said, recent production listings suggest that the two movies could shoot back-to-back in late 2026.

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Heartstopper: Forever
Status: Expected in 2026

Based on the graphic novels by Alice Oseman, Netflix’s queer drama Heartstopper wasn’t an instant hit. After 3 seasons, it currently stands at a wildly impressive 98% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Rather than renew the series for a fourth season, Netflix will instead end the series with a feature-length movie in 2026. The emotional final instalment adapts Volume 6 of Oseman’s best-selling series. It wrapped filming in July 2025 after just 35 days of filming.

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Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man
Status: Post-Production

Netflix’s long-anticipated Peaky Blinders movie, The Immortal Man, has officially wrapped filming after cameras rolled through the fall of 2024 in Birmingham and North Wales. The film reunites creator Steven Knight, director Tom Harper, and Academy Award winner Cillian Murphy, who returns as Tommy Shelby after the series ended in 2022. Joining him are Barry Keoghan, Tim Roth, Rebecca Ferguson, and returning cast members including Sophie Rundle, Stephen Graham, and Tom Hardy. Knight has teased the film as a “full-on Peaky Blinders at war,” with the story confirmed to unfold during World War II.


Plot details remain under wraps, but the backdrop of wartime Britain suggests Tommy Shelby will face both international threats and unfinished business at home, from fascist agitators to rival gangsters. Birmingham, heavily bombed during the Blitz, provides fertile ground for the conflict. With filming concluded in December 2024, a fall 2025 release on Netflix is the most likely window, though in the UK the film may first air on BBC One before arriving on the streamer. Fans worldwide can expect an explosive continuation of the Shelby legacy.

The Adventures of Cliff Booth
Status: Filming

While the creative team has been reluctant to call this a direct sequel to Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, but rather a follow-up or another chapter, we’re going to include it on this list. Filming in Los Angeles throughout the second half of 2025, the highly anticipated movie comes from writer Quentin Tarantino and director David Fincher with the return of Brad Pitt in his iconic role as Cliff Booth.

The Thursday Murder Club 2
Status: Unconfirmed

The Thursday Murder Club is one of the most recent entries in Netflix’s movie library. The film received mixed reviews on release. In our review, we wrote: “The leading actors don’t disappoint, the plot is easy to digest, the murders are either non-violent or off-screen, and the levity & charm is just enough to make a movie night after work enjoyable.”


Author Richard Osman has already written four novels in his Thursday Murder Club series, with a fifth novel on the way. Should Netflix want to adapt more, there’s plenty of source material available. If one thing is for sure, director Chris Columbus is down to make more movies. “For me, it was such a terrific experience working with everyone, and I would love to spend the next two or three years making a few more of these films,” he told Town & Country.

Other Sequels In The Works At Netflix

• Mission: Cross 2 – Netflix will distribute the second movie in the Mission: Cross series, an action thriller directed by Myung-hoon Lee, from South Korea. Filming begins in October 2025 and will run through February 2026.
• Under Paris 2 – After the success of the first movie, Netflix soon ordered a sequel film, the apocalyptic shark movie, with the return of Xavier Gens as director.
• We Can Be Heroes 2 – There was lots of talk and even soft confirmations that Netflix would be doing a sequel to We Can Be Heroes, one of the most-watched movies in Netflix history, but there’s been no significant progress in years.
• The Harder They Fall 2 – Jeymes Samuel confirmed on social media he was working on a follow-up sequel to this western, but no official word as of yet.