It’s official: Backrooms is a box office sensation, and a new era of creator filmmaking in Hollywood is on the horizon. Kane Parsons‘ feature-length adaptation of his spooky web series hit the big time by earning more than $81 million in the U.S. during its opening weekend. Globally, the Backrooms box office soared to an opening weekend gross of $118 million.
Backrooms distributor A24 managed to smash multiple records by turning out both arthouse film aficionados and Parsons fans who have been following the 20-year-old since his breakout on YouTube. Parsons is the youngest director to ever helm a movie that opened at #1 at the box office. Among original projects, he had the biggest opening weekend of any first-time director.
The Backrooms records related to A24 are even more astonishing. The indie distribution has released Best Picture winners like Moonlight and Everything Everywhere All At Once; critical darlings like Lady Bird and Marty Supreme; and cult favorites like The Witch and Hereditary. And yet none of those films — nor any other A24 picture — generated as big of an opening weekend as a vibey horror flick spearheaded by a 20-year-old creator.
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The previous A24 record holder, Civil War, didn’t even make one-third as much money during its opening weekend as Backrooms did, and that movie had a $50 million budget. Parsons made Backrooms for just $10 million.
“Nobody expected this to open above $80 million,” analyst Jeff Bock of Exhibitor Relations told Variety. “There’s an obsession with Backrooms mythology, and part of that is responsible for the Marvel-sized opening weekend.”
As if the prognosis wasn’t good enough already for creator-led features, Backrooms reached #1 at the box office by knocking off another director who broke out on YouTube. Curry Barker directed Obsession after scoring a viral hit with Milk & Serial, a YouTube-released found footage film that Barker and his crew made for just $800.
Three weeks into its theatrical window, Obsession has made $104 million at the U.S. box office. No film distributed by Focus Features has ever had a better domestic run.
These success stories have already convinced Hollywood execs that they need to make more movies directed by creators. According to The Hollywood Reporter, one studio has already offered Barker $10 million for his next movie, even though it doesn’t exist yet.
The current rankings at the domestic box office have Backrooms and Obsession above the Star Wars flick The Mandalorian and Grogu, so it’s not hard to see why studios see creator-led projects as the next blockbusters. There are, however, two important questions to ask about this wave of creator features: Can the formula work outside of horror? And is this whole trend just a big boys’ club?
The first creator-directed project to turn heads in Hollywood was Talk To Me. The heart-stopping scarefest was helmed by Danny and Michael Philippou, the fraternal Australian duo known online as RackaRacka. Then, in 2024, YouTube film critic Chris Stuckmann landed a deal with buzzy distributor Neon for a horror film called Shelby Oaks. 2026 has already brought three more horror triumphs directed by YouTube stars: Markiplier‘s Iron Lung, as well as Backrooms and Obsession.
All of those directors are men, they all made horror movies, and except for Markiplier, who is half-Korean, they are all white. Perhaps the runaway success of Backrooms and Obsession will allow Hollywood to expand the tent of creator-directors, but amid an “identity crisis” in Hollywood, the relative homogeneity of these directors is a concern. Can studios support creators without continuing a noticeable backslide toward white, male directors?
Backrooms may show studios how they can have their cake and eat it, too. A diverse cast led by Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve delivered polished performances that paired well with Parsons’ innovative eye. The film’s success ensures that more creators will get chances to bring their bold ideas to the big screen. Here’s hoping those innovators will get opportunities outside of the horror realm — and that they’ll continue to evolve the Hollywood pipeline along the way.
