The YouTube-to-prestige-horror pipeline looks very strong this weekend.
Topping the box office is ‘Backrooms’, an extension of the feature film Kane Parsons’ YouTube video series with eerie finds footage of a mysterious office space (by a 4chan thread) that defies physics.
Directed by Parsons, “Backrooms.” brings in about $81 million at the domestic box office this weekend alone. That’s the biggest opening by far for indie studio A24 — the previous record was held by “Civil War,” which earned $25.7 in its opening weekend.
Movie number two, “Obsession,” delivers something that is arguably even more impressive. True, the estimated weekend total is just $26.4 million — but the film (about a romantic desire gone horribly wrong) already made more money in its second weekend than it did in its first, and now its third weekend is set to grow another 10%.
For context, most wide release movies typically drop between 50 and 70 percent in their second weekend. last year’s “Sinners” was considered. a great word of mouth success because it fell less than 5 percent. Aside from the Christmas editions (which have more staying power, thanks to the holidays), increasing weekend to weekend is unheard of – according to the Hollywood Reporter“Obsession” is the first film since 1982 to grow in both its second and third weekends.
And like “Backrooms,” “Obsession” is a horror film directed by someone who first made his name on YouTube — Carrie Barkerwhose YouTube filmmaking peaked (for now) at the hour-long horror film “Milk & Serial” Released in 2024. Barker has already shot his next film and is set to direct a new remake of ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’.
Here are the two versions the surprise success of “Iron Lung”, a video game adaptation released earlier this year. “Iron Lung,” directed by Mark Fischbach — better known by his YouTube account name Markiplier — grossed nearly $41 million domestically.
In New York Times article of the recent YouTube-to-filmmaker boom, Rutgers Cinema general manager Mark DelVecchio noted that “a lot of YouTubers have tried to make the jump to mainstream movies and come out soon.” What sets Parsons, Barker and Fischbach apart? DelVecchio said that despite their youth (Parsons is 20, Barker is 26), they all have “longevity.”
“At this point, some of them have been making videos for a long time and that’s how you develop a loyal following,” he added.
Both films preceded the first Star Wars film in seven years, “The Mandalorian and Grogu,” which is on track to take in $24 million this weekend.
By the way, while I haven’t seen “Backrooms” yet (fingers crossed for tomorrow), have I saw “Obsession”. So I can attest that it doesn’t disappoint at all — I watched most of the second half with my fingers over my eyes and may have even screamed a few times.
This post was first published on May 30. It has been updated with current fund numbers.
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