All those backrooms in Backrooms can now serve a purpose beyond just being uncanny and creepy. They’ll be a great place to store all of the movie’s money.
A24’s Backrooms—directed by 20-year-old Kane Parsons and predicated on his wildly popular, deeply unsettling web series—absolutely blew the hidden doors off expectations. The R-rated horror flick gobbled up an estimated $81.5 million in North America during its first weekend of work, beyond even the most optimistic of prognostications. Add the $36.5 million it earned overseas and Backrooms already boasts $118 million in earnings—earnings that perhaps it can stuff in some of those backroom couches.
Also worth noting: A24 spent a measly $10 million making the thing, which means that the movie’s makers already have made plenty of profit. (Might I suggest using it to fix up those backrooms a bit. Some nice wood floors, some shiplap … its hungry inhabitants would surely appreciate it.)
Backrooms’ success and profitability may also mark a turning point in the movie industry itself—the same sort of shift that Star Wars arguably set in motion 49 years ago. If Star Wars (now known as Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope) ushered in the age of the blockbuster, Backrooms may help usher in a new era powered by YouTube.
Backrooms is joined in that vanguard by Obsession, another R-rated horror film from a director best known for his work on YouTube. In this case, it’s 26-year-old Curry Barker, who reportedly made Obsession on a $750,000 budget. Obsession was the talk of Hollywood when it earned $17.2 million in North America in its debut, May 14-16. But while most movies hemorrhage huge segments of their audience every weekend after release, Obsession has actually been growing: It earned $24 million during the traditional three-day frame last weekend and an estimated $26.4 million this weekend—good enough for a surprise second-place finish. The horror flick has now collected $104.8 million stateside and $148 million worldwide.
The fall of The Mandalorian and Grogu seems to put an exclamation point on this potential changing-of-the-guard narrative. Part of perhaps Hollywood’s most storied franchise, The Mandalorian and Grogu was picked by many to be the weekend’s box office winner—a win it needed, given its reported $165 million budget. Instead, the film lost nearly 70% of its audience and earned just $25 million stateside—falling all the way to third place. Shocking? Perhaps. But in Hollywood’s ever-changing business climate, this is the way.
Michael stubbornly keeps moonwalking into the top five. It earned $11.7 million this weekend, pushing its domestic total to $339.9 million and its worldwide gross to a staggering $846.3 million. Not bad at all.
Another newcomer, The Breadwinner, closes out the top five with a $7.5 million weekend. That’s a bit below what experts had predicted, and that does not bode well for Nate Bargatze’s sweet PG comedy.
The World War II drama Pressure suffered a stormy debut, banking less than $5.8 million to finish seventh (behind The Devil Wears Prada 2 and its $5.9 million).
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