In a surprising turn at the box office, Kpop Demon Hunters from streaming giant Netflix (NFLX) climbed to the top of the North American charts this past weekend. Although Netflix usually skips theatrical releases and doesn’t publicly report ticket sales, industry sources cited by Variety estimate that the sing-along version of the animated musical brought in between $18 million and $20 million. Interestingly, this performance beat out Weapons, a horror film that had been expected to lead the weekend with $15.6 million in its third week.
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The film’s success is even more unexpected because it’s already available to stream on Netflix after debuting two months ago. Kpop Demon Hunters‘ momentum seems to be driven by the cultural impact it has made since hitting the platform. Indeed, the movie has three songs that are currently in the Billboard Hot 100’s top 10 and is now ranked as Netflix’s second-most-watched title ever. Furthermore, fans are turning out in costumes, singing along, and treating the screenings like interactive events. As a result, Netflix hopes that this excitement will boost streaming numbers and build hype for a possible sequel.
At the same time, other movies are still pulling in steady numbers to help prop up a summer box office that’s been struggling overall. For example, Weapons has quietly become a sleeper hit by earning over $115 million in North America and nearly $200 million worldwide. Still, the summer box office is underwhelming compared to early expectations. In fact, totals are now just 5.1% higher than last year, a significant drop from the 25% lead seen in June. With only about $3.5 billion in summer ticket sales so far, it looks unlikely that theaters will reach the $4 billion milestone that has only been hit once since the pandemic.
Is NFLX Stock a Good Buy?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Moderate Buy consensus rating on NFLX stock based on 24 Buys, 10 Holds, and one Sell assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. Furthermore, the average NFLX price target of $1,395.19 per share implies 13.9% upside potential.
