After its historic debut, the horror film Backrooms has already set a box-office record, notably for its studio A24.
It’s the summer’s unlikely powerhouse duo: Obsession by Curry Barker and Backrooms by Kane Parsons are not only shattering industry expectations (even dethroning Star Wars The Mandalorian and Grogu from the top of the box office), but they also symbolize a revival of independent horror cinema led by young directors who cut their teeth online. While Obsession improbably attracts audiences and theaters week after week, Backrooms leans on A24’s backing and the creator’s web series as support, all while remaining a micro‑budget project at $10 million.
The liminal-space phenomenon has certainly struck a chord, since it has surpassed even the most generous early estimates for its U.S. debut. With $81 million earned in its first weekend, Backrooms stands as a clear record for the distributor A24, the new king of the indie scene in the US, whose catalog is increasingly varied and ambitious. The previous top spot belonged to Civil War with $25.7 million. But Backrooms isn’t stopping there…
Guess who’s Backrooms ?
Indeed, Kane Parsons’s film needed only six days to hit the symbolic milestone of $100 million earned on American soil. Certes, one could argue that Backrooms is technically tied to an intellectual property, but its production scale still makes it an indie object, and few entries in the genre reach this figure by the end of their run. To stay within A24’s orbit, Céline Song’s Materialists cost twice as much as Backrooms ($20 million) and has grossed $107 million worldwide.
But more importantly, with that $100 million, the feature beat in three days the $96 million earned by Josh Safdie’s Marty Supreme in North America over its entire run. That had been the A24 record, ahead of Everything Everywhere All at Once ($77 million), Civil War ($68 million), and Uncut Gems ($50 million).
It’s worth noting that Marty Supreme also represented the distributor’s highest-budget outlay to date: $70 million. By that metric, Backrooms’ profitability will be substantially higher, especially since it’s expected to surpass this week the worldwide tally of the Timothée Chalamet film, which finished with $191 million.
As of now, Backrooms sits at $144 million, without release in every territory (including France). By comparison, the Everything Everywhere All at Once phenomenon had accumulated $148 million worldwide. On our end, we’ll have to wait until June 17 to get scared in empty corridors with Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve. It’s a ways off, but it’s coming fast.
