From A24 and first-time director Kane Parsons, liminal horror movie Backrooms is off to a hell of a start at the box office, scaring up $10 million on Thursday night alone. That’s the same amount made by Five Nights at Freddy’s in its own Thursday night opening back in 2023, and if Backrooms continues to match that film’s performance, we could be looking at an opening weekend total that approaches the $80 million mark. But let’s hold that thought for now…
While Backrooms embarks on its debut weekend this weekend, Curry Barker’s Obsession is headed into its third weekend at the box office, and the film has only been growing stronger with each passing week. After a debut weekend of $17 million, Obsession made a whopping $23 million in its second weekend, a practically unheard of week-to-week growth.
We can now report that Obsession has passed the $100 million mark as the film heads into its third weekend, only the second horror movie this year – behind Scream 7 – to smash through that milestone. It’s all but guaranteed at this point that Backrooms will very quickly hit the $100 million mark as well, which signals that the future of horror truly is upon us.
As Discussing Film notes, Obsession has made “over 125X its production budget of $750K.” Focus Features acquired the low-budget movie for a reported $15 million and spent a good amount marketing the film on top of that, but it’s already a massive financial win.
Backrooms, on the other hand, was made on a reported production budget of just $10 million, which the film already made back in its very first night of release. Horror is HOT right now, and with Kane Parsons and Curry Barker both getting their start on YouTube, it seems pretty clear that a new generation of self-taught young filmmakers is descending upon Hollywood.
For the horror genre in particular, that’s proving to be a very exciting prospect. The best part? Backrooms and Obsession aren’t just profitable horror movies, they are GOOD horror movies.
Stay tuned for more box office reporting throughout the weekend.
[Related] When Will ‘Obsession’ Be Available on Digital at Home?
In Curry Barker’s theatrical debut Obsession, after breaking the mysterious One Wish Willow to win his crush’s heart, a hopeless romantic finds himself getting exactly what he asked for but soon discovers that some desires come at a dark, sinister price.
Inde Navarrette (“Superman & Lois”) and Michael Johnston (“Teen Wolf”) star.
