Netflix animated film "KPop Demon Hunters" [Provided by Netflix]
Netflix animated film "KPop Demon Hunters" [Provided by Netflix]

Netflix's hit animated film "KPop Demon Hunters" continues to rewrite the record books on global music charts.

According to Billboard, the "KPop Demon Hunters" soundtrack has spent a cumulative 54 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Top Soundtracks chart, cementing its place in music history.

The milestone puts it within striking distance of the all-time record of 62 weeks held by Disney's "Moana." If the soundtrack holds the top spot for eight more weeks, it will claim the most weeks at No. 1 since Billboard introduced the chart in 2001 — a 25-year record.

Launched on June 30, 2001, the Billboard Top Soundtracks chart is the primary measure of real-world soundtrack consumption in the modern era, excluding classic albums from earlier decades such as "West Side Story," "The Sound of Music" and "Saturday Night Fever."

One notable exception is the 1965 release "A Charlie Brown Christmas," which charted with 31 weeks at No. 1 thanks to sustained streaming activity after 2001 — a testament to how rigorously the chart measures popular reach.

"KPop Demon Hunters" has appeared on the chart for a total of 58 weeks. It held the top spot for 54 of those weeks, yielding No. 1 for just four weeks — one each to "Wicked: For Good," "A Charlie Brown Christmas," Charli XCX's "Wuthering Heights" and the miniseries "Heated Rivalry."

Only 12 albums in the chart's history have held No. 1 for 25 weeks or more. The lower end of that group includes "Twisters" (25 weeks), "High School Musical" (26 weeks), Lady Gaga's "A Star Is Born" (26 weeks), "A Charlie Brown Christmas" (31 weeks), "Barbie" (33 weeks), and the two longest-running live-action film soundtracks — "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" and "The Greatest Showman" (34 weeks each).

All five of the chart's all-time top entries are animated films, underscoring the strong commercial power of pairing animated intellectual property with pop music. "Moana" holds the all-time record, with "KPop Demon Hunters" in second place, followed by "Frozen 2" (51 weeks), "Frozen" (44 weeks) and "Encanto" (41 weeks).

What makes the achievement especially significant is that "KPop Demon Hunters" broke the decades-long Disney stranglehold on the animated soundtrack market through a combination of K-pop production and a global streaming platform. Songs performed by the fictional girl group Huntrix within the film — including "Golden" and "How It's Done" — transplant polished K-pop production directly into the animated format, as does "Take Down," performed by Twice. The title track "Golden" spent eight non-consecutive weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and swept the 98th Academy Awards for Best Original Song and Best Animated Feature, while also taking home a Grammy Award.


shee@heraldcorp.com