KPop Demon Hunters has everyone bobbing their heads, especially parents

NEW YORK – At first, Ms Silvia Cruz, a mother of five, was sceptical when her children asked to watch KPop Demon Hunters.

“First of all, that title,” Ms Cruz, a 41-year-old resident of Wake Forest, North Carolina, said in an interview. “No, you’re not watching anything with ‘demon’ in it. And then, I was, like, ‘K-pop. What?’”

Now, by her count, she has seen the megahit Netflix animated film at least a dozen times since its release in June. Her kids, who range in age from two to 13, are up to about 30 viewings, she said. When they are not watching it, they are usually listening to the soundtrack.

The movie has become an unexpected juggernaut this summer, and is well on its way to reaching the cultural resonance previously achieved by Disney films such as Encanto (2021) and Frozen (2013).

The fantasy musical, produced by Sony Pictures Animation, follows members of fictional K-pop girl group Huntrix, whose work consists of entertaining fans with their music and protecting them from demons.

“I was basically just trying to make something I wanted to see – a movie that celebrated Korean culture,” said Korean-Canadian film-maker Maggie Kang, who wrote and directed KPop Demon Hunters with American illustrator-production designer Chris Appelhans. “And for some reason, I landed on demonology.”

While the film was an immediate hit, its reach has only grown since its release. According to data provided by analytics firm Nielsen, KPop Demon Hunters was streamed for about 250 million minutes during its release week – putting it squarely in the Top 10 of all streaming films for that week.

But instead of tapering off as new titles became available, as is usually the case, it only gained momentum. By the end of July, its viewership had more than quadrupled to more than one billion minutes in the month’s fourth week alone. This contributed to an overall increase in Netflix’s viewership numbers.

But the phenomenon has not been limited to children. Parents are eagerly watching the film too, and it has become a running joke on social media platforms that mothers and fathers are engaging with the film as much as – or even more than – their children are.

“Once a year, something breaks the internet, and KPop Demon Hunters is 2025’s breaking the internet,” said Mr Chris Mann, a Los Angeles-based content creator and the parent of two boys aged four and eight. “And when something’s so dominant, you can’t ignore it. And as a content creator, it was the perfect storm. I’m a parent who was experiencing this addiction in real life.”

American actor-comedian Andy Samberg said on United States talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live recently that he was on a “KPop Demon Hunters trip”.

“I’m all about it,” Samberg told American actress Tiffany Haddish, the show’s guest host. “I thought it would be something I could share with my daughter, who is eight. And I tried to get her to listen to it and she was, like, ‘Nah, I’m good.’”

Hit film, hit songs

The craze is not limited to the screen. Its soundtrack has landed several songs, including Golden, Your Idol and Soda Pop, in the Billboard Top 10 chart.

The popularity of KPop Demon Hunters is the latest indication of the growth in K-pop fandom worldwide, especially in the US, and how much South Korea’s cultural exports have grown.

According to a survey released in 2024 by the South Korean government, more than 200 million people across 119 countries consider themselves fans of Hallyu, a term that refers to Korean culture that has spread outside the region, with 68 per cent of fan clubs focused on K-pop.

The film’s cultural specificity is one key reason for its success, said assistant teaching professor of media Melissa Martinez at Syracuse University. Kang has said the soundtrack was inspired by K-pop titans such as BTS, Blackpink and Stray Kids.

The team behind the film “made sure that it was as authentic as possible, not just in the details of the story and the Korean cultural elements”, Prof Martinez said. “But the K-pop – the elements of the music – were not just an imitation.”

“In the particular is contained the universal,” as Irish novelist James Joyce once put it, and perhaps no recent film embodies that sentiment as much as this one. KPop Demon Hunters is attracting viewers who have never been exposed to K-pop.

Ms Cruz, the mother of five and a K-pop newbie, said she kept coming back to the film because of the music. Everyone loves an earworm. “They’re not just catchy tunes that get stuck in your head, but the voices are amazing. The melodies are rich and intricate. Your body can’t help but bop and sing along.”

Ms Melissa Zaro from Clifton, New Jersey, said watching the movie with her seven- and nine-year-old daughters had become a bonding experience, despite her not knowing much about K-pop.

One of her daughters has been learning to play the soundtrack on the piano with a teacher: “I am singing it in this guy’s basement while she’s learning piano.”

The film’s fast pace makes it an ideal watch for children growing up in the era of TikTok.

“I’ve watched shows with them from when I was a kid, and they can’t sit through all of them because they said they’re too boring, they’re too slow,” Ms Zaro, 42, said. “This movie is much quicker. I think they’re just used to faster everything.” NYTIMES