Hollywood has always searched for the next big idea, but studios are now looking in a place that was once considered just an online discussion space: Reddit.
The platform has become a surprising source of movie concepts, characters, and even new creative talent. The biggest example is “Backrooms,” a strange internet idea that started as a simple online post before becoming a major A24 film that earned $118 million worldwide.
Before it reached theaters, “Backrooms” grew inside Reddit communities where fans created theories, added details, and expanded the fictional world. The subreddit r/backrooms became a place where users developed the story and built an entire mythology around the mysterious spaces.
Jim Squires, Reddit’s chief marketing officer, explained to The Hollywood Reporter that the community played a major role in turning a simple idea into something much bigger. “It started back in 2019, and it was where people were coming together to really take this simple concept into all these discussions and the lore-building that happened in there,” Squires said.
The idea eventually caught the attention of filmmaker Kane Parsons, who was known online as Kane Pixels. He created a popular YouTube series based on “Backrooms,” and his work helped transform the internet concept into a feature film.
Now, Hollywood executives and talent agencies are paying closer attention to Reddit communities because they believe they can discover the next major franchise or filmmaker before anyone else does.
A moderator from the r/movies subreddit, who spoke with The Hollywood Reporter under the username SanderSo47, said Reddit works differently from traditional fan spaces because users actively help develop ideas. “Users not only witness the concepts, but they also help contribute with new ideas. There’s a lot of material to explore. It’s just about finding the right talent,” the moderator explained.
Reddit is not only being used to find movie ideas. It has also become a place where studios can measure audience reactions and understand what fans actually want. Squires described the platform as “a real-time IP incubator of sorts,” where communities can grow around stories and create strong fan connections before a project even exists.
One example is the horror subreddit r/nosleep, where writers share original scary stories. Some of those stories have already attracted Hollywood attention. A Reddit story titled “I Pretended to Be a Missing Girl” is being developed into a movie produced by and starring Sydney Sweeney.
Entertainment content has also become a major part of Reddit’s daily activity. According to the company, entertainment-related posts received hundreds of billions of views over the past year. The platform has become a place where studios can communicate directly with audiences through events like AMAs, where filmmakers and actors answer questions from fans.
Squires said that successful engagement depends on being genuine. “I always advise brands, do exclusive AMAs [ask me anything Q&As] that people might be interested in — that always fosters and brings true fans out,” he said.
Kane Parsons also returned to Reddit during the release of “Backrooms” for an AMA session that received more than 1,400 comments. For many fans, it was a full-circle moment: a creator who started online was now discussing a major Hollywood movie based on that same idea.
According to SanderSo47, the rise of “Backrooms” shows why studios are watching online communities more closely. “They see what’s popular, and they want some of that,” he said. The success of Parsons’ project proved that original ideas can come from anywhere, and Reddit may become one of Hollywood’s biggest places to discover them.
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