A24’s horror film “Backrooms” pulled in $10.4 million from Thursday preview screenings, setting a new preview record for the studio and signaling that an internet phenomenon born on YouTube is about to become one of the year’s bigger box-office stories. The result, reported by Variety, positions the film to rewrite A24’s record books and underscores both horror’s enduring theatrical pull and Hollywood’s growing appetite for content that originated online.
The preview haul is more than a strong opening-night number. It puts “Backrooms” on track to obliterate the studio’s all-time opening-weekend record, with industry projections pointing to a debut well beyond the initial $40 million to $50 million estimate.
A New Benchmark For A24
To grasp the scale of the figure, it helps to compare it with A24’s previous high mark. Alex Garland’s 2024 political thriller “Civil War” holds the studio’s opening-weekend record, and it made $2.9 million in previews on its way to a $25.5 million debut. “Backrooms” more than tripled that preview number, a gap that suggests its opening weekend could leave the prior record far behind.
A24 has spent more than a decade building a brand around distinctive, often unconventional films, and horror has been central to that identity. The studio turned titles like “Hereditary” and “Midsommar” into cultural touchstones, proving that elevated, idea-driven horror could draw audiences without the franchise machinery of larger studios. “Backrooms” extends that track record into new territory, taking a concept that spread through online forums and translating it into a wide theatrical release.
The financial math is striking. The film carried a production budget of roughly $10 million, meaning it effectively recouped its entire production cost in a single night of previews. For a studio that prizes efficiency over blockbuster spending, that ratio represents the kind of return that validates the entire model.
From YouTube Series To Feature Film
The story behind “Backrooms” is as notable as its box-office performance. The film is the feature directorial debut of Kane Parsons, a 20-year-old filmmaker who created the original “Backrooms” web series on YouTube. Parsons built a substantial following with short videos depicting a fictional research group exploring eerie, seemingly endless spaces, and that online audience has now translated into theatrical demand.
The concept draws on the idea of liminal spaces, the unsettling, empty rooms and corridors that gained traction on platforms like Reddit and 4chan. The aesthetic, all fluorescent lighting and featureless hallways, struck a nerve with younger internet users and spawned a sprawling body of fan content before Hollywood took notice. Parsons’ web series became the definitive version of the concept, which made it a natural candidate for adaptation.
For the big-screen version, A24 and Chernin Entertainment surrounded the young director with an established cast. The psychological horror film stars Chiwetel Ejiofor, Renate Reinsve, Mark Duplass, Finn Bennett, Avan Jogia, and Lukita Maxwell, among others, pairing a first-time feature director with seasoned performers. That combination reflects a calculated bet: trust the creative vision that built the online audience while reinforcing it with professional craft.
Why Online IP Is Reshaping The Box Office
The success of “Backrooms” speaks to a broader shift in how studios source material. For years, Hollywood has mined comic books, video games, and legacy franchises for built-in audiences. Internet-native properties represent the next frontier, offering pre-existing fan communities that can drive opening-weekend turnout without massive marketing spends.
What makes the “Backrooms” case distinct is the directness of the pipeline. Rather than licensing a concept and handing it to an established director, A24 brought the original creator into the director’s chair. That approach preserves the authenticity that made the property popular online, and the preview numbers suggest fans rewarded it. The film’s performance may encourage other studios to look more seriously at YouTube creators and online phenomena as sources for theatrical features.
A Bellwether For The Summer Box Office
The timing matters too. “Backrooms” arrives as the industry leans on horror to anchor the calendar, a genre that reliably overperforms relative to its budgets. Its debut shares a crowded weekend with other new releases, including Sony’s comedy “The Breadwinner,” projected for around $8 million, and StudioCanal’s D-Day drama “Pressure,” expected near $6 million. Holdovers including the horror title “Obsession” and Disney’s “Mandalorian and Grogu” remain in the mix.
Against that field, “Backrooms” looks set to dominate, and its trajectory will be read as a signal for the summer ahead. A breakout built on a modest budget and an online following offers a template that studios will study closely. For A24, the result reinforces a strategy that has repeatedly turned creative risk into commercial reward, and it marks an arrival for a director who built his audience one upload at a time.
