A24's 'Backrooms' Smashes Records With $81M Opening as YouTuber-Directed Horror Dominates

A24’s ‘Backrooms,’ directed by 20-year-old YouTuber Kane Parsons and adapted from his viral web series, opened to a record-breaking $81 million domestically against a $10 million budget. The psychological thriller, starring Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve, set multiple benchmarks: A24’s biggest opening ever, the largest debut for original horror, and the best start for a first-time filmmaker on a non-franchise film. Roughly 85% of the audience was under 35.

The weekend underscored a structural shift in Hollywood. Focus Features’ ‘Obsession,’ another YouTuber-helmed horror made for $1 million, defied gravity by climbing 10% in its third weekend and crossing $100 million domestic — the first non-holiday film since ‘E.T.’ to grow ticket sales in weeks two and three. Both films vastly outperformed Disney’s ‘The Mandalorian and Grogu,’ which collapsed 70% in its second frame despite a $165 million budget and wider screen count.

Industry analysts frame the YouTube-to-theatrical pipeline as a new production model rather than a one-off fluke, pointing to Mark Fischback’s ‘Iron Lung’ earlier in the year as part of the same wave. Cheap, creator-driven horror with built-in fanbases is now directly competing with — and beating — legacy franchise tentpoles at the start of summer.