Backrooms And Obsession Led One Of The Most Important Weekends Ever At The Box Office

This past weekend, "Backrooms" and "Obsession" led the box office in what will go down in history as a wildly important moment for the future of cinema. Horror doing big business at the box office is nothing new. Horror is not "back." What sticks out is that this pair of horror movies hail from young filmmakers who got their start on YouTube and are appealing to Gen Z in a way Hollywood hasn't managed to previously, at least not on this scale. We're seeing a real "before" and "after" moment unfold.

Hailing from A24, "Backrooms" has already secured its future as a franchise, with director Kane Parsons' feature directorial debut opening to $81.4 million domestically and $36.5 million internationally for a $118 million global debut. It was the number one movie worldwide and still has quite a few overseas markets left to open in. Oh, and it was made on a reported budget of just $10 million, meaning it's instantly profitable for all involved.

Then there's "Obsession." Directed by Curry Barker, it once again increased its take at the box office in its third weekend, pulling in $26.4 million domestically. That's a 10% increase over its second weekend haul. What's most impressive is that "Obsession" did something no other horror movie had done before, increasing by nearly 40% on its second weekend to $24 million, after posting a bigger-than-expected opening. It's now earned $148 million worldwide and counting.

Even more amazing? Barker's buzzy, widely-acclaimed feature debut was made for less than $1 million, later getting acquired by Focus Features for $14 million. That was money incredibly well spent. "Obsession" had already cemented the trend in horror of YouTubers crossing over into Hollywood. Now? It's more than just a trend.

Above all else, this past weekend at the box office was a signal that a changing of the guard is upon us. Kane Parsons is now the youngest filmmaker to ever top the domestic charts. He's only 20 and directed "Backrooms" while he was 19. It's also the biggest opening ever for an original horror movie. The overall record still belongs to Stephen King's "It" ($123 million), which became the biggest horror movie ever.

The fact that we're even talking about "Backrooms" in the same context as "It," a movie that ended up making more than $700 million, is insane. Meanwhile, "Obsession" has become the rarest of rare word-of-mouth cultural sensations. It's getting the kind of buzz that no studio could reasonably buy. People are rallying behind it in such an organic way that it's hard to wrap one's head around.

Most telling of all is that both of these movies are succeeding as the latest "Star Wars" movie, "The Mandalorian and Grogu," is struggling. Initially, "The Mandalorian and Grogu" looked like a modest win for "Star Wars" at the box office, opening with just over $81 million domestically against a $165 million budget. That's small for "Star Wars," but not bad for a TV-show-turned-movie. However, it collapsed in its second weekend and landed in third place, taking in just $25 million, which represents a 69% drop.

In the heat of the summer movie season, when "Star Wars" has historically made boatloads of cash and become one of Hollywood's most cherished franchises, two low-budget horror movies from young, previously unknown directors are towering above the latest entry in a galaxy far, far away, which has the might of Disney behind it. That is telling, and it feels like a line in the sand.

For much of the early 2000s and all of the 2010s, Hollywood had a franchise obsession that was largely connected to things that were popular in the '80s and, above all else, superheroes. The Marvel Cinematic Universe was the dominant force. No longer.

In the here and now, the MCU has fallen from grace at the box office. The presumed era of superhero dominance is over. That's not to say superhero movies won't make money, but they won't all make money, and what they make will probably be less than it used to be. Meanwhile, we're looking at a situation where "Masters of the Universe" is going to get buried by "Scary Movie" this upcoming weekend. Things are changing and the rules that defined a hit before 2020 no longer apply.

Hollywood struggled mightily to get Gen Z to theaters in the pandemic era. It turns out, studios just needed to make things they cared about. Kane Parsons made the definitive version of he "Backrooms" mythology on YouTube. Turning that into a movie galvanized the younger, chronically online masses. Similarly, Curry Barker got his start on YouTube and told a story that very much appealed to his generation. They turned out in droves.

It's not unlike how "Five Nights at Freddy's" gave Gen Z a blockbuster to call their own. Or how YouTuber Markiplier's "Iron Lung" shocked the box office earlier this year by self-distributing a movie and mobilizing his massive audience. The fact of the matter is that Hollywood will now be forced to follow the money, and that money is leading them somewhere new.

Gen Z has firmly arrived in Hollywood. 

"Backrooms" and "Obsession" are in theaters now.