Have you ever wondered who made KPop Demon Hunters? KPop Demon Hunters is a movie made by Sony. However Sony made the mistake of selling the global rights to Netflix. In fact, this wasn't just a mistake, it was one of Hollywood's worst blunders. Giving away KPop Demon Hunters to Netflix was as bad as if Disney had given away the massive empire known as Frozen.
Sony thought that giving away KPop Demon Hunters would be a safe deal at the time. What they didn't know was that it would become a global phenomenon. But just like other things, this also had a backstory.
It started with a man called Aron Warner. In the early 2000s, Warner was a senior producer riding
off an Oscar win for Shrek. That’s when he crossed paths with a young but talented Korean artist named Maggie Kang. In 2018, Aron switched from Dreamworks to Sony. Thereafter, Warner asked Kang whether she had any ideas. She immediately said that she was thinking about the idea of three goofy, K-pop friends who fight demons in Seoul. Warner and Kang immediately took the idea to Sony. The president was enthusiastic, but the corporate HQ didn't share the excitement.
While Sony hesitated, the world was already moving in one direction, the K-wave. At this point, the movie's budget was going towards $100 million. That was a lot of money, and Sony didn’t know how they were going to get it back. And that’s where Netflix comes in. Unlike Sony, Netflix wasn’t afraid to bet big on K-content. The deal they struck in 2023 seemed simple at the time, but without knowing it, Sony had just handed over the keys to a billion dollar empire. Sony would take care of production and animation while Netflix would finance the movie and own the global rights.
When KPop Demon Hunters dropped on Netflix on June 20th, it shot to number one worldwide and hasn’t left the top. So in the end, the lesson is clear. In the streaming wars, one mistake can cost billions of dollars. And, Sony had just taught Hollywood how not to play the game.
