‘Backrooms’ Makes A24 History in Record-Breaking Box Office Debut

Pandemonium erupted at the box office this weekend, with the holdover hit Curry Barker‘s Obsession delivering yet another weekend-on-weekend increase in revenue, and still finishing second on the charts. The number one movie globally this weekend was fellow horror title Backrooms, which summarily destroyed pre-release projections and set records that will be difficult to beat. It delivered the biggest opening-weekend haul in the 14-year history of indie outfit A24, grossing nearly thrice as much as the previous record-holder Marty Supreme‘s opening weekend haul from 2025. Additionally, Backrooms director Kane Parsons is now the youngest filmmaker ever to deliver a number one opening at the global box office. At 20, Parsons is much younger than the previous record-holder, Josh Trank, who was 27 when Chronicle debuted at the top spot.

Parsons still isn’t old enough to drink, but has made history with Backrooms — a $10 million horror that has delivered a domestic debut in the range of Christopher Nolan‘s Oppenheimer, Denis Villeneuve‘s Dune: Part Two, and James Cameron‘s Avatar: Fire and Ash. Backrooms is based on Parsons’ web-series of the same name, and stars Oscar nominees Renate Reinsve and Chiwetel Ejiofor in the lead roles. Like Obsession, which was also directed by a young man who honed his talents on YouTube, Backrooms opened to excellent reviews.



















Collider Exclusive · Horror Survival Quiz
Which Horror Villain Do You Have the Best Chance of Surviving?
Jason Voorhees · Michael Myers · Freddy Krueger · Pennywise · Chucky

Five killers. Five completely different ways to die — if you’re not smart enough, fast enough, or self-aware enough to avoid it. Only one of them is the villain your particular set of instincts gives you a fighting chance against. Eight questions will figure out which one.

🏕️Jason

🔪Michael

💤Freddy

🎈Pennywise

🪆Chucky

01

Something feels wrong. You can’t explain it — you just know. What do you do?
First instincts are the difference between the survivor and the first act casualty.





02

Where are you most likely to find yourself when things go wrong?
Setting is everything in horror. Where you are determines which rules apply.





03

What is your most reliable survival asset?
Every survivor has a quality the villain didn’t account for. What’s yours?





04

What kind of fear is hardest for you to fight through?
Knowing your weakness is the first step to not dying because of it.





05

You’re with a group when things start going wrong. What’s your role?
Horror movies are brutally clear about who survives group situations and who doesn’t.





06

What’s the horror movie mistake you’re most likely to make?
Honest self-assessment is a survival skill. Denial is not.





07

What’s your best weapon against something that can’t be stopped by conventional means?
Every horror villain has a weakness. The survivors are always the ones who find it.





08

It’s the final scene. You’re the last one standing. How did you make it?
The final survivor always has a reason. What’s yours?





Your Survival Odds Have Been Calculated
Your Best Chance Is Against…

Your instincts, your strengths, and your particular way of thinking under pressure point to one villain you actually have a fighting chance against. Everyone else — good luck.


Camp Crystal Lake · Friday the 13th

Jason Voorhees

Jason is relentless, but he is also predictable — and that is the gap you would exploit.

  • He moves in straight lines toward his target. He doesn’t strategise, doesn’t adapt, doesn’t outsmart. He simply pursues.
  • Your ability to keep moving, use the environment, and resist the panic that freezes most victims gives you a genuine edge.
  • The Crystal Lake survivors were always the ones who stopped running in circles and started thinking about terrain, water, and distance.
  • You think like that. Which means Jason, for all his indestructibility, would face someone who simply refused to be where he expected.


Haddonfield, Illinois · Halloween

Michael Myers

Michael watches before he moves. He is patient, methodical, and almost impossible to detect — until it’s too late for anyone who isn’t paying close enough attention.

  • But you are paying attention. You notice the shape in the window, the car parked slightly wrong, the silence where there should be sound.
  • Michael’s power lies in the invisibility of ordinary suburbia — the fact that nothing ever looks wrong until it already is.
  • Your spatial awareness and instinct to map every room, every exit, and every shadow before you need them is precisely the quality Laurie Strode had.
  • You are not a victim waiting to happen. You are someone who already suspects something is wrong — and acts on it.


Elm Street · A Nightmare on Elm Street

Freddy Krueger

Freddy wins by getting inside your head — using your own fears, your own memories, your own subconscious as weapons against you. That strategy requires a target who can be destabilised.

  • You are harder to destabilise than most. You’ve faced uncomfortable truths about yourself and you haven’t looked away.
  • The survivors on Elm Street were always the ones who understood what was happening and chose to face it rather than flee from it.
  • Freddy’s greatest weakness is that his power evaporates in the presence of someone who refuses to give him the fear he feeds on.
  • Your psychological resilience — the ability to stay grounded when reality itself becomes unreliable — is exactly the quality that keeps you alive here.


Derry, Maine · It

Pennywise

Pennywise is ancient, shapeshifting, and feeds on terror — but it has one critical vulnerability: it cannot function against someone who genuinely stops being afraid of it.

  • The Losers Club didn’t survive because they were braver than everyone else. They survived because they faced their fears together, and faced them honestly.
  • You ask the questions others avoid. You look directly at what frightens you rather than turning away.
  • That directness — the refusal to let fear fester in the dark — is Pennywise’s worst nightmare.
  • It chose the wrong target when it chose you. You are exactly the kind of person whose fear tastes like nothing at all.


Chicago · Child’s Play

Chucky

Chucky’s greatest advantage is that nobody takes him seriously until it’s already too late. He exploits the gap between how something looks and what it actually is.

  • You don’t have that gap. You take threats seriously regardless of how they present — and you never make the mistake of underestimating something because of its size or appearance.
  • Chucky relies on surprise, on the delay between recognition and response. You close that delay faster than almost anyone.
  • Your instinct to treat every unfamiliar thing with appropriate scepticism — rather than dismissing it because it seems absurd — is the exact quality that keeps you breathing.
  • Against Chucky, not laughing is already winning. You are very good at not laughing.

Here’s How Much ‘Backrooms’ Grossed in Its Global Box Office Debut

It now holds a “Certified Fresh” 89% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, where the critics’ consensus reads, “A startlingly assured feature debut from director Kane Parsons, Backrooms bends the liminal spaces that have haunted the internet for years into a horror film that’s as mesmerizing as it is terrifying.” Collider’s Aidan Kelley was just as enthusiastic, evoking masterpieces in his review. He wrote, “The slow burn of Alfred Hitchcock, the surreal visuals of David Lynch, and the human stakes of Stanley Kubrick are all on full display here, making for one of the unique and intriguing horror properties of the decade, let alone of the year.” Backrooms was initially projected to make around $25 million in its opening weekend, a number that was later increased to $45 million, and then $75 million. In actuality, the movie grossed a humongous $81 million in its domestic debut, and just under $120 million worldwide. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.


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Release Date

May 27, 2026

Runtime

110 minutes

Director

Kane Parsons


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