From director Kane Parsons, producer James Wan, and distributor A24, liminal nightmare Backrooms arrives in theaters this weekend, and it’s on track to have a MASSIVE opening.
According to a report from Variety this afternoon, the Backrooms movie is currently tracking to scare up $40 – $50 million in the United States across this coming weekend!
Variety notes in their report, “This would mark A24’s biggest debut to date, passing Civil War ($25.5M). With a production budget of $10M, Backrooms is poised to be a major financial win for YouTube creator-turned-director Kane Parsons and A24.”
The highest opening weekend for a horror movie so far this year was Scream 7 with $63.6 million back in February, with every other horror movie this year nowhere close to that number. If Backrooms can open this weekend with between $40 and $50 million, it will needless to say be a massive win for Kane Parsons, A24, and the horror genre at large at the box office.
Backrooms began as a series of viral videos from Kane Parsons on YouTube, the same platform that Obsession director Curry Barker got his start on. The one-two punch of Obsession and Backrooms as box office success stories looks to mark a brand new chapter in the history of horror, with a new group of filmmakers charting a new course for the genre. They both come in the wake of Markiplier’s horror movie Iron Lung making an incredible $50 million in theaters from an independent self-release, which would’ve been unheard of at any point in the past.
It’s an exciting time to be a horror fan, to say the very least.
A24 will open Backrooms in 3,400 theaters in the United States this weekend, where it will be competing with horror hit Obsession and Paramount’s new horror film Passenger.
[Related] ‘Backrooms’ Popcorn Bucket Is Available to 3D Print at Home
Chiwetel Ejiofor stars in Backrooms as an employee of Cap’n Clark’s Ottoman Empire, who discovers a strange doorway in the basement of the furniture showroom. He sets out to explore the mysterious, liminal space, walking headfirst into a creepypasta nightmare.
Renate Reinsve (A Different Man) also stars in Backrooms.
YouTube prodigy Kane Parsons makes his feature directorial debut based on his creepypasta-inspired video series, which debuted in 2022 and has amassed over 190 million views to date.
The origins of the Backrooms, however, date back even further…
