Across the country this weekend, the following refrain echoed between movie theaters: “I’m done hidin’, now I’m shinin’, like I’m born to be.” Those words, sung by the trio Huntr/x, come from the Korean animated film KPop Demon Hunters, whose theatrical opening weekend earned approximately $18 million dollars at the North American box office, taking the number one spot held by previous chart-topper Weapons.Impressive as that is, the most notable aspect about KPop Demon Hunters‘ box office success comes from the fact that the movie isn’t new. It has already been a big hit for Netflix where the movie’s been available to stream since June 20 of this year, which defies what’s going on a decade of supposedly settled conventional wisdom when it comes to streaming and consumer interests. Indeed, the fact that KPop Demon Hunters is a hit simultaneously on streaming and in theaters contradicts the logic held by many tech-leaning executives in the entertainment industry, including Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos.Consider that in an interview with Variety this past April, Sarandos called the theatrical moviegoing business model, where directors made “movies on a gigantic screen and have strangers watch them” an “outdated” concept. Technically Netflix has purchased movie theaters of its own over the years in both New York and in Los Angeles, and has given Oscar players such as Glass Onion and Emilia Pérez limited theatrical runs, but for some executives, including Sarandos, these are concessions to a dying industry. “We have to do some qualification for the Oscars,” he admitted in the same April interview.For that reason, Netflix has reserved for its streaming service movies that seem designed to be watched in a crowd. And these don’t just include obvious crowdpleasers like Glass Onion (which played like gangbusters at Netflix’s Paris Theater in NYC where audiences cheered). It’s easy to imagine that many flaws of the Russo Brothers’ big budget adventure The Electric State would likely be diminished when enjoyed with a group dazzled by the stars and effects. Meanwhile Richard Linklater‘s genuinely winning Hit Man would have not only won over a crowd, it possibly could have developed a sleeper hit status if it was a movie continually marketed as a theatrical must-see date night experience (see the box office run of the fellow Glen Powell-starring Anyone But You for more).But whether its because Netflix wants to protect its own business model or because Sarandos actually believes in the pseudo-democratic rhetoric the company uses to defend streaming (“if you’re fortunate to live enough in Manhattan, and you can walk to a multiplex and see a movie, that’s fantastic,” he said, but “most of the country cannot”), the streaming head has treated theaters like the enemy. This antipathy is particularly confusing given how much evidence we’ve seen that people like theaters, even when streaming is an option. Released to HBO Max the same day they hit theaters, Warner Bros movies such as James Gunn‘s The Suicide Squad and Denis Villeneuve‘s Dune did relatively disappointing numbers compared to the giant smashes of both directors’ follow-ups, Gunn’s Superman and Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two.While the imprecise nature of officially released streaming numbers makes it hard to quantify, one gets the sense that even movies that do just okay in theaters, such as the Blumhouse thriller Drop or even the widely mocked Madame Web, have a bit more prestige when they hit streaming, standing out against straight-to-streaming releases that get buried by algorithms. They certainly have a habit of dominating the Netflix Top 10 watched movies when they premiere on the service.Yet the strongest evidence of the folly in Sarandos’ thinking might now be KPop Demon Hunters itself. In his conversation with Variety, Sarandos argued that “movie theaters … the communal experience” is “an outmoded idea.” But KPop Demon Hunters‘ theatrical run is among the most communal experiences in recent cinematic history. These are specifically “Sing-Along” screenings designed so that fans who watched the movie on Netflix can come and sing them together, belting out “Golden” with Huntr/x and “Soda Pop” with the Saja Boys.All of these examples show that people like watching movies in theaters and they like watching them at home. It’s not an either/or proposition. In fact, there’s a symbiotic relationship between the two at play with a theatrical release—even one as short as 45 days—serving as marketing for the movie, creating buzz for those who plan to watch the flick at home.That lesson could not come any sooner. Netflix is continuing to pick up projects from interesting directors, the type of filmmakers who understand the power of cinema and how to use the big screen. This October Netflix will be releasing A House of Dynamite from The Hurt Locker director Kathryn Bigelow and the Oscar Isaac-led Frankenstein directed by Guillermo del Toro, first to “select” theaters and then to streaming. Meanwhile Rian Johnson‘s latest Knives Out sequel, Wake Up Dead Man, will also be going to theaters ahead of its holiday season release, but it remains to be seen whether the film will be in cinemas any longer than the nominal one-week release Glass Onion received in 2022.If KPop Demon Hunters has taught us anything, it’s that we need no more hiding of movies on streaming. They are meant to be shining on the big screen… at least for a little while, and then they can expand their audiences even more at home.The post Netflix Should Embrace Having the Number One Movie at the Box Office appeared first on Den of Geek.