“K-pop Demon Hunters” to be released on disc from Criterion: cover and prices revealed

The Netflix cartoon, which has become the most popular in the history of streaming, will receive a physical release from the cult Criterion — a company that usually deals with Kurosawa and Bergman, and not cartoons about pop stars. The cover has already been shown, pre-orders are open, and the price is converted into the “gift to yourself for the holidays” category.

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There is a special status that in the world of physical media means more than any cash register, explains xrust. This is not an award or a certificate — it is the letter “C” in a circle on the spine of the disk. Since 1984, the Criterion Collection has been publishing films that the company itself calls “important” — and its catalog includes Renoir, Godard, Kurosawa, Bergman, Tarkovsky, Hitchcock and Kubrick. Getting a ticket there is like getting into a conservatory as a street musician.

That is why the news that this series will include a cartoon about Korean girls who sing in stadiums during the day and cut down demons with swords at night looks almost absurd. But the fact is that the cover for the Blu-ray edition of K-pop Demon Hunters has already been released, featuring the anime-themed members of HUNTR/X and the blue tiger Derpy, and retail catalogs list prices at $39.95 for the Blu-ray and $49.95 for the 4K UHD version. At the current exchange rate, this is approximately 3150 and 3950 rubles, respectively — however, for Russian buyers this is more of a guideline than a real price: the disc will have to be ordered through intermediaries, since there are no official Criterion deliveries to Russia.

What exactly will be included in the extras is still a mystery. Criterion usually offers not just trailers, but weighty booklets with essays by film experts and comments from the creators, but for this particular release the studio has not yet revealed the details.

Companion to Misfortune — also from Netflix

An interesting detail that Criterion itself highlighted back in February: along with “Hunters,” the label is taking Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein,” also a Netflix project, under its wing. It turns out to be a kind of signal to the industry: streaming no longer means “the film will die in the archive after a week in the top.” Even something that has never been shown in cinemas on a large scale can end up on a collector’s shelf next to the masterpieces of world cinema.

How did a cartoon about demons get to this status

Formally, “Hunters” had a tiny release — a few days of Singalong screenings in the fall of 2025, which unexpectedly topped the American box office. But the film truly existed on Netflix, where it has amassed over 500 million views since June 2025—a record that has not been broken by any other release on the platform, including Red Notice.

Further — progressively. The soundtrack peaked at number one on the Billboard 200, and the song «Golden» became the first ever song from an animated film to spend weeks at the top of the Hot 100; At the same time, four tracks from the film were simultaneously in the top 10 of the chart — this has never happened with any soundtrack before. In the spring of 2026, the film won the Golden Globe, then received all ten Annie Award nominations, and in March won the Oscar for Best Animated Film, beating, among other things, Disney's Zootopia 2. Director Maggie Kang, who is of Korean descent, spoke from the stage about how much this victory means for the representation of Korean culture in big cinema.

The toy war ended with a truce

A separate story is what happened around the film in the merch industry. Mattel and Hasbro, rivals who usually fight for every toy store shelf, have agreed to an unprecedented joint licensing of dolls and action figures based on the film. By the spring of 2026, thematic editions of Uno and Monopoly appeared on the shelves — a rare case when a brand turned out to be large enough to seat rivals at the same negotiating table.

The continuation has already been confirmed — but the wait is long

Netflix and Sony officially closed the deal for the sequel back in March, right before the Oscars. Kahn and Appelhans are returning to direct as part of an exclusive multi-year deal with the streaming service because they say there was too much character backstory left unseen beyond the first film. There is only one problem: animation takes a long time to produce, and the release should not be expected until 2029. Fans will have to while away four years by re-watching the original — fortunately now they will have a reason to do it in 4K.

Sources:
variety.com
au.rollingstone.com
au.variety.com

Xrust “K-pop Demon Hunters” will be released on disc from Criterion: cover and prices revealed