May 31, 2026
From YouTube to boom tube
'Backrooms' Stuns with $81M Debut
Gen Z packed theaters as fans crowned a YouTube horror king and dunked on old franchises
TLDR: “Backrooms” shocked Hollywood with an $81 million opening, proving a young YouTube creator can beat major studio movies at their own game. Online, fans are cheering a new era of original horror, while skeptics argue the film is all mood and not enough story.
The real scream this weekend wasn’t on screen — it was coming from the crowd. “Backrooms” didn’t just open big, it absolutely exploded with $81 million in North America, smashing records for indie studio A24 and instantly turning 20-year-old director Kane Parsons into the internet’s latest movie-world obsession. And in the comments, fans were practically doing victory laps. One longtime follower bragged that Parsons has seemed like a genius since his teen years, while others marveled that a creator who started making eerie videos online is now outgrossing giant franchise fare at the multiplex.
That’s where the delicious drama kicked in. Commenters treated this like a full-on youthquake at the box office: fresh horror from YouTube creators is in, while older blockbuster brands are suddenly looking tired. With “Obsession” also surging and Disney’s “The Mandalorian and Grogu” tumbling hard, the vibe online was basically: people are desperate for new ideas, not endless leftovers. Several fans said YouTube-made movies have given them their first real reason to go to a theater in years.
But not everyone was ready to bow down. Some viewers praised “Backrooms” as clever, tense, and refreshingly free of cringey dialogue. Others came in with the dreaded buzzkill take: yes, it had atmosphere, but the story was “meandering” and the payoff weak. In other words, the internet has chosen its favorite new horror wunderkind — but it’s still arguing over whether the movie is a masterpiece or just a very creepy vibe.
Key Points
- •A24’s “Backrooms” opened to $81 million from 3,442 North American theaters, setting a new company opening-weekend record.
- •Focus Features’ “Obsession” earned $26.4 million in its third weekend and surpassed $100 million at the domestic box office.
- •Disney’s “The Mandalorian and Grogu” dropped 70% in its second weekend and finished behind both horror films despite wider release.
- •Directed by 20-year-old Kane Parsons, “Backrooms” has reached $118 million globally against an approximately $10 million production budget.
- •The article frames “Backrooms,” “Obsession,” and “Iron Lung” as examples of YouTube creators successfully moving into theatrical filmmaking.