This weekend has been a monumental one for Hollywood, as A24’s Backrooms has smashed the box office records for an original horror flick by garnering an impressive global haul of US$118 million.
As reported by Variety, the film adaptation, which was directed by 20-year-old Kane Parsons, the creator of the original Backrooms YouTube short film, grossed US$81 million from 3,442 North American theatres within its opening weekend, with its worldwide earnings coming in at US$118 million, making it an impressive haul considering its humble US$10 million budget.
With this, the film is now Hollywood’s top-earning original horror flick, alongside the biggest opening weekend earner in A24 history. In comparison, even big-budget horror movies like the recently released Scream 7 paled in comparison, with the film garnering US$63.6 million in the US over its opening weekend. Similarly, Backrooms also beat out more current releases like Mortal Kombat II, which debuted to US$38 million in the US.
Based on Parsons’ hit horror web series, Backrooms follows a furniture store owner (Chiwetel Ejiofor) who finds a secret doorway that leads him to a seemingly endless stretch of nondescript rooms. When he subsequently disappears, his therapist (Renate Reinsve) then ventures into the strange Backrooms to rescue him. Following its massive success, it’s no surprise that A24 is already gearing up for a sequel, with Deadline’s sources reporting that Parsons is already looking for a screenwriting collaborator to work on the sequel to expand the Backrooms film IP, with the filmmaker previously expressing his hopes to turn the franchise into a feature anthology.
Elsewhere at the box office, another breakout horror hit, Focus Features’ Obsession, continues its strong performance with an additional US$26.4 million from 2,781 cinemas in the US, with the Inde Navarrette-led psychological horror film now crossing the US$100 million mark domestically. The film centres on Bear (Michael Johnston), a music store employee who buys a supernatural toy that grants him his wish for his friend Nikki (Navarrette) to fall in love with him, leading to horrifying consequences.
With two indie horror films leading the charge, this marks quite a notable shakeup for Hollywood, as younger directors are proving that you don’t need a massive budget or advertising to make a hit. Whether this marks the start of a new Hollywood era or a paradigm shift for the industry remains to be seen, but one thing’s for sure, big-budget studios are surely taking notes right about now.
Kevin is a reformed PC Master Race gamer with a penchant for franchise “duds” like Darksiders III and Dead Space 3. He has made it his life-long mission to play every single major game release – lest his wallet dies trying.
