In the wake of Obsession continuing an unheard-of box office run, another horror film entered the marketplace from a young director with a YouTube background. Backrooms, based on the web series from director Kane Parson, which was inspired by the “Backrooms” creepypasta, exploded over the weekend with a staggering $81.4 million opening weekend at the domestic box office, all off of a $10 million budget. With the global take factored in, Backrooms has already amassed $117.9 million worldwide and even upset the Star Wars fandom in the process by only allowing The Mandalorian and Grogu one week at number one at the box office. The opening continues a seismic shift in Hollywood that has seen young filmmakers be at the top of the conversation while horror once again proves to be a consistent winner at the box office in a year that has seen moviegoing heading in the right direction following the affects of the pandemic.
Directed by Parsons from a screenplay by Will Soodik, Backrooms follows a furniture store owner and failed architect named Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and his therapist, Dr. Mary Kline (Renate Reinsve), who discover a dimension in the furniture store of seemingly endless liminal spaces after Clark goes missing while trying to uncover the mystery of this newfound discovery. Backrooms scored not only with the fandom so far, but it also garnered solid reviews, registering an 89 percent on Rotten Tomatoes with a consensus that reads, “A startlingly assured feature debut from director Kane Parsons, Backrooms bends the liminal spaces that have haunted the internet for years into a horror film that’s as mesmerizing as it is terrifying.” In addition to Ejiofor and Reinsve, the film also stars Mark Duplass, Finn Bennett, and Lukita Maxwell.
Backrooms Began Breaking Records On Its Opening Day
Backroom’s initial projections had the film opening around the $20 milllion mark, but industry insiders and the fandom alike knew that figure was extremely low-balled. The film’s opening day alone came in at $38.4 million, a figure that eclipsed the opening weekend alone of A24’s Civil War ($25.5 million), the film that previously held the indie studio’s opening weekend record. The full opening weekend of $81.4 million more than tripled that record and allowed A24 to have an opening weekend that is usually afforded to bigger studios and established tentpole releases.
In addition to being A24’s biggest opening weekend ever, Backrooms is the biggest R-rated opening weekend of the year so far, and it secured a spot in the top 15 R-rated openings of all time. Another substantial record for the genre as a whole is that Backrooms is the largest opening for an original horror film in history, and allows it to stand tall against heavy-hitting horror movie openings that are either based on existing IP (IT, $123 million opening weekend), sequels (IT: Chapter Two, $91 million opening weekend), or the final film of a popular horror franchise (The Conjuring: Last Rites, $84 million opening weekend).
In another win for young filmmakers and future young auteurs who can look at this success as an inspiration, Parsons, at just 20 years old, is now the youngest director to be at the helm of a film to top the box office globally, besting the previous benchmark set by Josh Trank and Chronicle, a director who was 27 in 2012 when that film opened at number one with $22 million. Parsons also set another record with the biggest opening weekend for a first-time director of an original film. During a time when the industry needs new voices and fresh ideas, these are the kind of records that should help push even more of them forward.
Younger Moviegoers Continue To Drive Box Office
Much like what’s currently going on with Obsession’s unprecedented box office run, Backrooms was driven by the younger demographic showing up in droves for the film. Close to 85 percent of the opening weekend audience was under the age of 35 and 50 percent came in at 25 and younger. Obsession showed a similar trend when that film’s opening weekend saw 75 percent of its audience being between 18 and 25 years old. A glance at social media during this film’s opening weekend and even in the weeks since Obsession opened, will show users pointing out that a lot of their sold-out showings were dominated by young people and that it was refreshing to see the younger crowd in packed theaters excited to see films that speak to them.
The younger demographic is one that shouldn’t be ignored when it comes to generating box office receipts. Even as theaters began to reopen in the wake of the pandemic with safety protocols in place, it was the younger crowd that was more willing to attend, while older audiences, and rightfully so, were more cautious. With the movie attendance appearing to be in the upswing, the younger demo continues to show up, and they will especially show up for projects they feel connected to in some way.
The younger demo also seems more willing to spread out how they watch movies. Streaming is still a prevalent force, and Hollywood certainly thought that Gen Z would think that was the future of movie watching, but they have consistently proven them wrong. Young audiences are tapped into the best ways to watch certain offerings, and while some of those might be best served at home, they’re aware that others feel like an event that should be shared communally with their peers. They proved this with the $80 million opening of Five Nights at Freddy’s, a film based on a popular video game IP for the younger set, and they proved it once again with Backrooms.
Younger Audiences Won’t Just Accept Anything
It might appear that the younger crowd will see just about anything spoon-fed to them, but that simply isn’t the case. Backrooms comes from lore that is mind-bending in nature, and its tales of parallel universes have captivated them because they’re more abstract and allow them to come to their own conclusions about what it all means. It has created a community of fans who helped expand the lore and provide them with material that doesn’t condescend to them or insult their intelligence.
That’s not to say that Gen Z won’t come out for sequels or spin-offs or films based on established IP. A Minecraft Movie exploded because of younger audiences, with an opening weekend of $162.7 million on its way to $424 million domestically and $960.3 million worldwide, but it was a pre-existing IP that also feels within their wheelhouse. Every generation has IP that makes an audience feel as if it’s theirs because of when it became a big deal as they were coming-of-age. Backrooms became hot with the younger crowd at the right time, and A24 was smart enough to realize that it had the potential to make its fanbase follow it to the big screen.
Returning to the same well won’t always work if Hollywood wants to hold on to the attention of younger audiences. Star Wars was once a reliable player at the box office, and despite a seven-year absence from the big screen, that should’ve enticed moviegoers to show up, The Madalorian and Grogu, a spinoff that brought the Disney+ series to the big screen, opened decently over Memorial Day weekend to $81.6 million over three days and $98 million over the four day holiday but it suffered a massive drop in weekend two of 70.1 percent to $24.4 million. This shows that hardcore Star Wars fans did drive business during its opening weekend, but it may not have connected more with younger audiences who aren’t 100 percent connected to the nearly 50-year-old franchise.
Horror Continues To Be Realiable At The Box Office
This doesn’t seem to need to be driven home, but it always seems to surprise the industry when horror movies succeed at the box office. Even films in the genre with less-than-stellar reviews make the fanbase come out, and since horror films tend to be cheaper to produce, the return on investment can be higher, and profit is much easier to achieve.
Lee Cronin’s The Mummy didn’t completely wow critics (47 percent on Rotten Tomatoes), but the film has become a hit in terms of its budget ($22 million) and its global return ($90 million worldwide). Even an aging franchise like Scream shows not only the ability of an IP to cross generations but also how the familiarity in the genre can be rewarded. Good reviews may have been lacking (31 percent on Rotten Tomatoes), but Scream 7 registered the biggest opening of the franchise to date ($63.6 million) and has become the biggest film of the IP domestically and globally ($122 million, $214 million), all on a budget of $45 million.
Backrooms continues the trend of horror winning at the box office and also signals that fans don’t just want one type of horror film to sink their teeth into. It doesn’t all have to be senseless score and mindless entertainment. There is room for check your brain at the door horror films and others that dig a bit deeper. You’re seeing this now with Obsession, a film that speaks to relationships and male and female dynamics, and there have been other recent examples of horror movies that offer a more cerebral experience, like Sinners and Weapons. Also, at just $10 million, Backrooms is another horror movie that didn’t break back and quickly turned a profit. With a $7.7 million Monday for the best Monday ever for an R-rated horror movie in June, it doesn’t seem like the film is done bringing in back for A24 in the weeks ahead, following its record-breaking opening weekend.
The YouTube Online Fanbase Will No Longer Be Ignored
Backrooms provides another example, in what is becoming a long line of them, that the online YouTube fanbase is a viable voice and a valuable marketing tool. Curry Barker is on a similar trajectory as Parsons, with his beginnings producing YouTube skits and short films before the $750,000 budgeted Obsession became the hit that has everyone talking. The film has grossed $151 million worldwide in three weeks and hasn’t experienced a weekend-to-weekend decline. While it helps that these films are also good, having the built-in fanbase leads to butts already being in the seats.
According to Brighter Path, an analytics firm, Parsons’ fandom ahead of Backrooms being released, which began through his web series, is a big reason why the film has already become a runaway hit. They estimate that 22 percent of the opening weekend was driven by Parsons’ fanbase, and that is an analysis that Hollywood is paying attention to. The industry is always trying to find the best way to market its films, and the YouTube generation has created its own promotional guidelines that are cheaper than just about any marketing budget.
It’s a pipeline that speaks to the demographic profoundly. Because many of these filmmakers are younger, they have a direct line to their audience that makes their viewers feel more understood and as if what they produce will have something to say about the experience they’re living. Instead of potentially looking down at these young voices, Hollywood is starting to see that, while the old guard is still relevant and holds a place in the industry, the younger set has created a lane that can move in lockstep with tradition. As these younger talents are properly cultivated, the young fanbase is along for the ride and isn’t afraid to open their wallets to show support.
Backrooms is not playing in theaters nationwide.
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