Sony Pictures Entertainment President and CEO Ravi Ajuha is, of course, being asked if the studio regrets selling Sony-produced Kpop Demon Hunters to Netflix given the massive success of the animated film theatrically for the giant streamer. It’s complicated, he said today, but maybe not.
“The goal of the deal was to make hits. One great thing about being an independent is we’re happy when our clients do well. So they did well,” he told investors at the Bank of America media conference in New York today. The film gave Netflix its first no. 1 box office opening at over $19 million in wide release late last month. Netflix is in early talks on a sequel.
In a wide ranging Q&A, among his first after taking the top job at SPE about a year ago, he hit on the current state of the U.S. box office, on SPE’s Crunchyroll and anime, UK television production, India, game shows, and making the Alamo Drafthouse theater chain a key consumer facing outlet for all things Sony.
But Kpop Demon Hunters talk occupied a big chunk of time. Asked if he thought the film would have been as big a success if it was released theatrically initially, Ajuha said, “Yeah, this is the question we ask ourselves, and everybody’s asking this too. I don’t know. Obviously, in hindsight, it’s such a big hit.
“The quick story is, it was developed starting in 2021 when we did our Netflix output deal, that huge output deal. And you know, we were working on direct platform as part of that deal. Direct platform to Netflix. And KPop Demon Hunters was one. It was during the pandemic. It’s a KPop theme, a very specific film. Netflix paid the whole cost plus a profit premium to us. And, at the time, it made sense. But now you look at the success and think maybe it could have been theatrical. And in fact, Netflix took it to to theaters, right? So perhaps. But I do feel that if you look at its pattern on Netflix, it started out on Netflix and then word of mouth made it grow in theatrical.
“So I think it was in the right home. I would say our mission is make great content, find the right home. And I think KPop Demon Hunters’ right home was Netflix. Is Netflix. Could it have been theatrical? Hard to say. You don’t really know. It’s possible, but I don’t think it’s like, ‘Oh, it’s obvious now,’” Ahuja said.
Asked if the sequence of the film could lead to some shifts in terms of future deals, Ahuja said there’s “an ongoing conversation about terms” [around] whether the right terms are being used. Whether streamers can actually pay less but give back more rights. And I’ve told all the streamers we’re very open to that. So we’re having more of those conversations. So if you think about KPop Demon Hunters in that light, yeah, I think we would always rather bet on ourselves, right?”
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