Kane Parsons’ ‘Backrooms’ Has Already Broken A24’s Opening Weekend Record

It's only Saturday, but Kane Parsons' horror film, Backrooms, has already broken A24’s record for best opening weekend. The record was previously held by Civil War.

Directed by the 20-year-old Parsons, Backrooms topped Friday’s box office with $38 million, surpassing Civil War’s $25.5 million (Alex Garland, 2024) and setting a new A24 record.

Backrooms was initially expected to break $45 million, but projections now estimate it could reach $80 million over the three-day weekend. With a $10 million budget, the film is expected to gross much more throughout its run.

Parsons’ Backrooms is an adaptation of his YouTube series of the same name. The idea originally stems from a creepypasta, the genre of horror legends the internet cooked up, where people would “no-clip” out of reality into liminal spaces. Parsons’ series took the idea to the next level with a found-footage short film that has 80 million views as of May 30, 2026. The short film spawned his series and now a record-shattering feature film.

Starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Renate Reinsve, Lukita Maxwell, and Mark Duplass, Backrooms follows a store owner and a therapist who discover a dimension full of liminal spaces and, like the original short film, potential monsters and entities lurking in the shadows.

Parsons is not the only young YouTube creator to make waves at the box office this weekend.  Obsession, the horror from newcomer Curry Barker, 26, came in at second place under Backrooms.  Obsession beat outStar Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu this weekend. The horror has seen a box-office spike in both its second and third weeks, something practically unheard of outside of Christmas. Both films are overperforming, with their key demographics being 18-25, according to PostTrak exit polling, Deadline reports.

Like Parsons, Barker got his start on YouTube before transitioning to filmmaking. YouTubers Danny and Michael Philippou previously worked with A24 on Talk to Me in 2023 and with Sony on Bring Her Back in 2025.  Gaming YouTuber Mark Fishbach, aka Markiplier, made his directorial debut this year with Iron Lung, which now holds the record for the most fake blood used in a single movie.

The A24 blockbuster, Backrooms, is in theaters now.

source https://www.mensjournal.com/news/kane-parsons-backrooms-has-already-broken-a24s-opening-weekend-record