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” took in $38 million on Friday and is expected brings in a total of $80 to $90 million at the domestic box office this weekend alone. For indie studio A24, it’s the biggest opening by far — 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, it earned just $8 million on Friday, for an estimated weekend cume of $28.5 million — but the film (about a romantic desire gone horribly wrong) already made more money in its second weekend than its first, and now its third weekend is set to grow 19%.
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. Apart from the Christmas editions (which have more staying power, thanks to the holiday), the weekend-to-weekend increase is unprecedented — 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 the director who first made his name on YouTube — Carrie Barkerwhich he released the hour-long horror film “Milk & Serial” on YouTube 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 boomlet,” Rutgers Cinema general manager Mark DelVecchio noted that “many YouTubers have tried to make the jump to mainstream films and come out short.” 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.
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.
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