Netflix is gifting fans the ultimate immersive experience for the one-year anniversary of their record-breaking film. Chief Marketing Officer Marian Lee frames it as a community touchpoint—bringing people together through shared fandom and music.
Insiders say Netflix House has been hemorrhaging foot traffic at some locations, and 'KPop Demon Hunters' is their Hail Mary to prove the concept works. Word is they're pulling out all the stops, including that giant Derpy photo op fans have been begging for on social media.
Fan screenings happen June 20 at both Dallas and Philadelphia Netflix House locations. The immersive experience opens holiday season 2026. 'KPop Demon Hunters' won Best Animated Feature AND Best Original Song ('Golden') at the Academy Awards earlier this year—the first K-pop song to ever win an Oscar.
Netflix is betting big that fans will pay actual money to step into a world they already stream from their couches. Whether this flesh-and-blood extension pays off—or becomes another expensive experiment—remains to be seen.
Netflix is turning its biggest hit into a full-blown destination experience, announcing Tuesday that "KPop Demon Hunters: The Immersive Experience" will land at Netflix House locations in Dallas and Philadelphia just in time for the holiday season. The news drops on the film's one-year anniversary, making this less of a celebration and more of a calculated victory lap from a streaming giant still riding high from its historic Academy Awards sweep earlier this year.
Marian Lee, Netflix's Chief Marketing Officer, spilled some details to Variety about what fans can expect inside these experiential playgrounds. "With 'KPop Demon Hunters,' the question was, 'How do we bring all the elements of the film into the House?'" Lee said, teasing that the experience will feature a giant Derpy character—yes, that fuzzy demon mascot everyone fell in love with—for photo opportunities. But that's just the appetizer.
"Music is a key component," Lee added. "We've done a lot of research, and the fans have told us, they want music, they want singing, they want to be singing, they want to watch singing, and so we've taken all those elements." Translation: prepare your vocal cords, because audience participation appears to be non-negotiable. This isn't Netflix's first rodeo with immersive activations.
The streaming titan has previously transformed properties like "Wednesday: Eve of the Outcasts," "One Piece: Quest for the Devil Fruit," and "Squid Game: Survive the Trials" into physical experiences designed to pull fans out of their living rooms and into recreated worlds. Lee described Netflix House's philosophy as creating something you can return to repeatedly—"fun to do over the course of an hour" with options ranging from VR adventures to theater screenings.
The goal, according to Lee: "Creating a touchpoint in local communities is important to us." Fans in Dallas and Philadelphia will get their first crack at the experience this holiday season, while everyone else gets a chance to catch fan screenings at both locations on June 20. Let's not forget why Netflix is investing serious coin into extending this particular IP: "KPop Demon Hunters" became the streaming giant's most-watched movie in history and made Oscar history earlier this year when "Golden"—the film's original song performed by EJAE (Rumi's singing voice), Mark Sonnenblick, and The Black Label team of Yu Han Lee, Hee Dong Nam, and Zhun—became the first K-pop track ever to take home Academy Award gold.
The film also snagged Best Animated Feature, cementing its cultural crossover appeal that Netflix clearly intends to monetize beyond streaming numbers. Lee hinted there are "additional pop-ups and events" planned worldwide for the franchise, saying simply: "There is no shortage of ideas." Tickets and further details drop later this year—assuming you're willing to pay to walk through a movie you could technically watch for free on your couch.
