‘KPop Demon Hunters’ Could Beat ‘Weapons’ for No. 1

“Weapons” had no trouble retaining its top spot at the box office on Friday, but there’s another release still chasing after it. With movie theaters getting quiet as the summer season winds down, Netflix’s animated streaming smash “KPop Demon Hunters” may actually end up winning the weekend, with a two-day release of a sing-along version. It’d be quite the turn of events for Netflix, which has consistently opted out of playing in movie theaters, to the point of the company’s CEO calling them “outdated” back in April.

“KPop Demon Hunters” has already been on Netflix for over two months. It’s still climbing the streamer’s all-time charts, now ranking as the second most-watched film ever on the platform. But despite being readily available for home viewing, there’s clearly an appetite among fans to watch the film in theaters.

The animated musical, which was produced by Sony Pictures Animation before being sold to Netflix, is bowing in more than 1,700 locations on Saturday and Sunday. That’s many more venues than the last time Netflix went beyond an awards-qualifying theatrical run with “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery,” which played about 600 locations, albeit over the longer five-day window of the 2022 Thanksgiving holiday. Netflix did not report box office grosses then and it’d be a remarkable change if they decided to now, even though the company would be turning down bragging rights for No. 1.

Meanwhile, “Weapons” still has a head start on the weekend with $4.7 million on Friday, down just 37% from its daily total a week ago. It’s the start of another strong hold for the buzzy horror film, which only dropped 43% in its second weekend. Writer-director Zach Cregger’s R-rated original has now crossed $105 million in North America, now ranking as the market’s 13th-biggest release of the calendar year.

Opening this weekend, “Honey Don’t!” is in 1,417 theaters from…