This weekend, “Backrooms” entered the mainstream.
A24‘s buzzy horror film, directed by 20-year-old YouTube phenom Kane Parsons, obliterated box office expectations with $81 million domestically and $118 million worldwide in its opening weekend. Those ticket sales rank as the largest debut ever for A24, more than tripling the record once established by Alex Garland’s 2024 thriller “Civil War” ($25.5 million). It also delivered the biggest start in history for an original horror movie. Meanwhile, Parsons became the youngest filmmaker with a No. 1 film at the box office, trouncing the benchmark held by Josh Trank, who was 27 when 2012’s “Chronicle” launched in first place with $22 million.
“Backrooms” is based on Parsons’ popular web series about liminal spaces — eerie, seemingly endless rooms and structures that have gained popularity over the years in online forums like Reddit and TikTok. The story follows a furniture store owner (Chiwetel Ejiofor) who finds a secret doorway that leads him to a seemingly endless stretch of nondescript rooms. When he disappears, his therapist (Renate Reinsve) ventures into the unknown to rescue him. A24 and Chernin Entertainment co-financed “Backrooms” for roughly $10 million, so it’s already a wildly profitable hit.
“Nobody expected this to open above $80 million,” says analyst Jeff Bock of Exhibitor Relations. “There’s an obsession with ‘Backrooms’ mythology, and part of that is responsible for the Marvel-sized opening weekend.”
Though a sequel hasn’t been announced, Parsons has already teased the idea of turning “Backrooms” into a film franchise. Before those extra-dimensional spaces return to the big screen, Variety unpacks five takeaways from its record-breaking opening weekend.
Gen Z goes to the movies!
During the pandemic, Hollywood feared that younger audiences would never get into the habit of cinema-going. Put those worries to rest. Zoomers fueled a record turnout for not just one but two movies over the weekend. “Backrooms” should have cannibalized the turnout for “Obsession,” another buzzy horror sensation that hails from a YouTuber. Instead, “Obsession” enjoyed another historic jump in its third weekend — ticket sales were up 10% from its second frame — and crossed the $100 million mark domestically. Youths dominated in terms of attendance: With “Backrooms,” nearly 85% of audiences were under the age of 35, and 50% were 25 or younger. For “Obsession,” 75% of initial crowds were between 18 and 25 years old. Since the subject matter was different — “Backrooms” is a foreboding mind-bender involving parallel universes, while “Obsession” is a frenetic thriller about the dangers of romantic fixation — the films didn’t feel like too much of the same thing and, for some cinephiles, worked well as a double feature.
“They can co-exist because there’s a massive demand for it,” says Bock. “Both films doing amazing business in the height of summer proves this audience cannot be satiated yet.”
Franchise fatigue, or franchise discernment?
That said, Gen Z won’t go to their local multiplex to watch just anything. It’s not that they’re averse to franchises. Blockbusters like “Minions: The Rise of Gru” (#GentleMinions, assemble!) and “A Minecraft Movie” (Chicken jockey, anyone?) were propelled by younger audiences. Kane even refers to “Backrooms” as IP. But the demographic isn’t turning out for sequels, spinoffs and reboots just because a property was beloved by their parents or grandparents. Take Disney’s”The Mandalorian and Grogu,” a spinoff in the nearly 50-year-old “Star Wars” universe. Despite playing on many more screens than “Backrooms” or “Obsession,” the big-budget “Mandalorian and Grogu” endured a brutal 70% tumble in its second weekend to land in third place on weekend charts. That catastrophic a drop signals that Baby Yoda and company weren’t able to resonate strongly beyond the brand’s core, aging fans.
What does that mean for summer movie season, a period that’s usually dominated by major franchises? Upcoming releases like “Toy Story 5,” “Minions and Monsters” and “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” are predicted to be juggernauts. But in the future, Hollywood can’t return to the well without a compelling reason — at least if they want Gen Z to buy a ticket.
Yes, the YouTube to Hollywood pipeline is real
Parsons and Barker, 26, are part of a wave of YouTubers making the leap to the mainstream by bringing their enormous online fanbases along with them. Earlier this year, YouTube creator Mark Fischback, aka Markiplier, directed, self-financed and distributed the horror film “Iron Lung,” which earned a stellar $50 million against a $3 million budget. YouTubers Danny and Michael Philippou achieved a similar feat with A24’s supernatural horror film “Talk to Me,” which earned $92 million against a $4.5 million budget in 2022.
Jason Blum, who produced “Backrooms” and “Obsession” through his company Blumhouse-Atomic Monster, called YouTube a “new place to look for the next generation of groundbreaking talent.” It’s not that everyone who starts on the internet is destined to be the next Spielberg. However, Blum believes it’s up to Hollywood to cultivate the ones with artistic promise. With Parsons, the burgeoning director was aided by industry heavyweights like Peter Chernin, James Wan and Shawn Levy, all of whom were producers on “Backroom.”
While the small screen was once considered a threat to moviegoing, analysts say that’s not necessarily the case.
“Whether or not this is ushering in a new era or a paradigm shift for the business remains to be seen,” says Paul Dergarabedian, Comscore’s head of marketplace trends. “But this YouTube creator-to-big screen pathway should be viewed as additive and complementary component of the production pipeline, the likes of which has not existed until now.”
Horror tastes are shifting
Scary movies used to be all about shock value. People went opening weekend to experience the frights in a communal setting. But with little substance beyond the scares, the genre became notorious for drastic second-weekend drops in ticket sales. That paradigm has been shifting with original, well-reviewed horror movies, such as Blumhouse’s “M3GAN” and “The Black Phone,” director Zach Cregger’s “Barbarian” and “Weapons,” Neon’s “Longlegs” and Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners.”
In the eyes of Blum, who was behind several of those successes, there’s a “new generation of moviegoers who are declaring a very specific taste for horror movies that is quite left-of-center.”
Analyst David A. Gross, who publishes the box office newsletter FranchiseRe, attributes the shift to something else: thoughtful storytelling.
“Thirty years ago, horror movies were driven by violence and gore,” Gross says. “The best of these movies are moving beyond shock value. The horror elements are there, but they’re working within more ambitious narratives and helping tell more satisfying stories. The filmmakers are digging deeper.”
Blumhouse is back
Blumhouse suffered a rare cold-streak for much of 2025, with a pile-up of flops including “M3GAN 2.0,” “Wolf Man,” “The Woman in the Yard” and “Drop,” and the axing of “Soulm8te,” a spinoff in the “M3GAN” universe. Fortunes for the company, which revolutionized low-budget horror with hits like “Paranormal Activity” and “The Purge,” began to rebound with last November’s “Black Phone 2” and December’s “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” as well as this spring’s “The Mummy” reboot. Up next, Blumhouse-Atomic Monster has “Insidious: Out of the Further” and paranormal thriller “Other Mommy” in 2026 and sequels to “The Exorcist” and “Paranormal Activity” in 2027. Can those films keep the scary-good times going?
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