Netflix's Most-Watched Movie Of All Time Beat Disney At Its Own Game

Published Jul 12, 2026, 8:00 PM EDT

KPop Demon Hunters shattered several Netflix records, including one that still sees it in the streaming service's weekly top 10 movies over a year after its release. As an animated musical fantasy story, KPop Demon Hunters shows that Netflix is operating in Disney's typical wheelhouse. This alone shows how Netflix beat Disney at its own game, but what further reinforces this is the immense success KPop Demon Hunters had.

In many ways, the cultural impact of KPop Demon Hunters rivals that of Disney's Frozen, which ingrained itself into pop culture in 2013. Despite many attempts at replicating Frozen's success, Disney has yet to do so, even with a sequel and more planned. Therefore, it is clear that the next Frozen didn't come from Disney, it came from Netflix with KPop Demon Hunters.

Netflix Released KPop Demon Hunters At The Perfect Time

One thing that aided Netflix in beating Disney at its own game was the release window for KPop Demon Hunters. In the 2020s, Disney has encountered somewhat of a lull, especially where its animated movies are concerned. The last two animated musicals from Disney were Moana 2 and Wish, both of which received mixed reviews. This means that the last good, genuinely impactful animated musical made by Disney was Encanto, released five years ago in 2021. Before then, Disney's animated musical movies were Frozen 2 in 2019 and Moana in 2016.

Evidently, Disney's track record of late has not been as stellar as it once was, with only two animated musicals in the last 10 years receiving outright critical acclaim: Moana and Encanto. Frozen 2 was not considered to be as good or as impactful as its predecessor, with all of this providing Netflix with the perfect window to release a movie like KPop Demon Hunters. Audiences for animated musicals have not been fulfilled for a while now, with Netflix filling that void with relative ease.

KPop Demon Hunters' Success Proves Disney's Focus Has Been Wrong Recently

Another thing that the insane success of KPop Demon Hunters proves is that Disney has been focusing on the wrong projects of late. Since 2015, Disney has released 10 live-action remakes of classic musicals, with several more not in the musical genre also being produced. Since that year, only five animated musical movies have been released, and two of these were sequels. What has become increasingly clear in this period is that Disney's live-action remakes are drying up.

While many of them have performed well from a commercial perspective, there are also several that have flopped at the box office. Moreover, the recent live-action remakes have suffered from dwindling critical reviews, with even the best-reviewed installment, 2016's The Jungle Book, still not regarded as an improvement on the original. Nonetheless, despite all of this, Disney has persevered with live-action reimaginings of its animated musical classics, with more in the works, from Tangled to Hercules.

What KPop Demon Hunters proves, though, is that Disney is making the wrong decision in doing so. Netflix released an animated musical fantasy movie that has been more successful and culturally impactful than any of the same ilk since Disney's original Moana in 2016. This supports the idea that audiences still desire animated, catchy musicals with great music and characters. Netflix realized this and released KPop Demon Hunters to worldwide success, both beating Disney at its own game and proving the latter studio is focusing on the wrong projects.