Four Weekends In, ‘Backrooms’ Is Still Standing and Still Breaking A24 Records
It has been a summer to remember at the box office, with original horror films consistently outperforming the franchise blockbusters that are supposed to dominate the warmer months. At the center of that trend sits ‘Backrooms’, A24’s breakout horror sensation directed by YouTuber Kane Parsons, which has been shattering the studio’s own records since its May 29 theatrical debut.
The film’s origin story is unlike almost anything Hollywood has seen. Parsons uploaded the first entry in his ‘Backrooms’ web series to YouTube in January 2022, building a mythology rooted in the viral creepypasta concept of liminal spaces. Studio interest followed quickly, eventually leading A24 to make an offer, and Parsons put his college plans on hold to pursue the project as his feature directorial debut.
The gamble has paid off on a scale few could have predicted. Now entering its fourth weekend, ‘Backrooms’ stands at $175 million domestically and over $301 million globally, and has become the first film in A24’s history to cross the $300 million mark worldwide. Those returns have surpassed the lifetime haul of Timothée Chalamet’s ‘Marty Supreme’, which previously stood as the indie studio’s biggest movie at the worldwide box office with $191 million, and it accomplished this record in just ten days of release.
What makes those numbers stagger even more is that the film cost just $10 million, meaning it has now earned roughly 30 times its budget. The cast is led by Oscar nominees Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve, following a furniture store owner who discovers a doorway into a seemingly endless dimension of nondescript rooms. Critics responded with an 88% Certified Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, averaging across nearly 280 verified critical reviews of the film.
Parsons, who is just 20 years old, became the youngest filmmaker to open a film at number one at the North American box office, surpassing Josh Trank’s previous record set with ‘Chronicle’ in 2012. Speaking to IndieWire about the sprawling mythology he helped bring to the mainstream, Parsons kept a characteristically grounded perspective. “Mine’s just a ‘Backrooms’ story, certainly not the official one,” he said. “There’s no official one.”
Fans eager for a sequel will find the situation equally measured. Parsons has made no secret of his long-term ambitions for the franchise, describing sequels as more than an option and something he has planned since the beginning. However, he has pushed back against reports of active development, clarifying in a recent podcast appearance that there is currently no meaningful movement on a follow-up project.
As ‘Backrooms’ continues to hold in theaters alongside 2026’s other horror success stories, it stands as one of the Top 10 movies of the year worldwide, proof that internet-native storytelling has earned a genuine seat at the top of mainstream cinema. A creepypasta post, a teenager’s YouTube channel, and a sub-ten-million-dollar budget have combined to produce A24’s most successful film in the studio’s history.
Do you think ‘Backrooms’ has the kind of mythology that can sustain a full franchise, or is part of what makes it special something a sequel could never quite replicate?
