Backrooms didn’t just give A24 its biggest opening ever. It may be the clearest sign yet that YouTube-bred directors are taking over theaters.
The horror movie opened with a reported $81.5 million domestically and $118 million worldwide, putting 20-year-old Kane Parsons at No. 1 and making him, according to A24, the youngest director ever to top the global box office.
For Parsons, it’s a massive leap from viral YouTube horror to box office history. For Hollywood, it’s another warning sign that the next wave of filmmakers isn’t waiting to be discovered by the studio system.
They’re building audiences online first, then bringing them to theaters.
Kane Parsons Breaks A Box Office Record At 20
Parsons has now broken a record that stood for more than a decade.
The previous youngest filmmaker tied to this kind of box office milestone was Josh Trank, who was 27 when Chronicle opened at No. 1 in 2012. Parsons just did it at 20 with his feature directorial debut.
That makes Backrooms more than another horror hit. It turns Parsons’ jump from YouTube to theaters into one of the wildest Hollywood success stories in years.
Backrooms Gives A24 Its Biggest Opening Ever
The numbers are massive for A24, as they easily top A24’s previous opening weekend record, which belonged to Alex Garland’s Civil War with $25.5 million in 2024.
The budget also makes the story even crazier. Backrooms reportedly cost around $10 million, meaning the movie is already a monster win for A24.
It also puts the film on track to become one of the studio’s biggest movies ever, if it holds in the weeks ahead.
Young Audiences Showed Up In A Big Way
The audience breakdown says a lot.
Backrooms pulled in a heavy under-35 crowd, with 86% of the audience under 35, more than half under 25, and 44% under 21.
That’s the audience Hollywood keeps trying to chase. Backrooms got them into theaters by speaking their language.
The movie didn’t need a giant franchise logo. It didn’t need decades of IP baggage. It came from YouTube, creepypasta lore, and the kind of online horror that Gen Z already knew.
From YouTube Short To A24 Smash
Parsons first released The Backrooms (Found Footage) on YouTube in 2022, when he was still a teenager.
The short built on the Backrooms creepypasta, which started online around the idea of endless yellow rooms, buzzing lights, and creepy empty spaces that feel wrong. Parsons turned that internet concept into a full horror series, building the tone and mythology in public before Hollywood came calling.
A24, Atomic Monster, Chernin Entertainment, and 21 Laps later got behind the feature version, with Parsons directing.
For the full story of his rise, see our Kane Parsons profile.
YouTube Directors Are Now Winning At The Box Office
Backrooms also fits into a bigger trend.
Parsons isn’t the only online creator breaking through. Curry Barker’s Obsession has been breaking records of its own, while Markiplier’s Iron Lung already showed that creator-driven horror can pull a real theatrical audience.
This isn’t some side lane anymore. It’s becoming a real box office lane.
Hollywood spent years trying to turn internet culture into movies. Backrooms shows what happens when the person who built the online hit gets to bring it to theaters himself.
The trend has Hollywood paying close attention, and it’s exactly what has Jason Blum talking about a new generation of directors and his goal of building “the Disney of horror.”
Hollywood Just Got Its Wake-Up Call
Backrooms is more than A24’s biggest opening ever. It’s a warning shot to the rest of Hollywood.
A 20-year-old filmmaker just took a YouTube horror concept, turned it into a $118 million global opening, and beat the major studio competition in the process.
Combined with Obsession, Iron Lung, and the growing demand for creator-driven horror, Backrooms proves the YouTube generation isn’t just watching movies online anymore.
They’re making the movies people are paying to see.
What Is Backrooms About?
Backrooms is based on the viral internet horror concept about endless, empty rooms and hallways that feel like they exist outside normal reality.
The movie follows a group of characters trapped inside that nightmare, with Parsons expanding the same liminal-space horror style that made his YouTube shorts blow up.
The cast includes Chiwetel Ejiofor, Renate Reinsve, Mark Duplass, Finn Bennett, and Lukita Maxwell, with A24 backing the feature alongside Atomic Monster, Chernin Entertainment, and 21 Laps.
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