The Backrooms may be empty, but movie theaters are full.
I’m really excited about this new A24 horror film, Backrooms! It’s directed by Kane Parsons, who’s only 20 years old – and he actually turned his own online horror series into this movie. The story centers around this weird discovery of what seems like endless, mostly empty yellow rooms hidden in the basement of a furniture store. Plus, the cast is fantastic! They’ve got Chiwetel Ejiofor, Renate Reinsve, and Mark Duplass, alongside Finn Bennett and Avan Jogia. It’s already getting a lot of buzz, and it earned a 90% ‘Certified Fresh’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes before it even came out on May 29th!
According to Deadline, the movie Backrooms is predicted to earn between $85 and $88 million domestically over its first three days. This is significantly higher than initial forecasts. Earlier estimates from Box Office Theory ranged from $30 to $45 million (as of May 21st), then increased to $50 to $68 million (May 27th), and finally $76 to $79 million (May 29th) before the latest projections.
The film topped the box office this weekend, earning significantly more than last week’s top movie, The Mandalorian and Grogu. It made over three times as much money in its opening weekend.
This weekend, The Mandalorian and Grogu is predicted to make $25 million, a significant 69% decrease from last week. It’s likely to land in third place, behind the horror film Obsession, which is performing surprisingly well. Obsession is expected to earn around $28.5 million, a nearly unheard-of 19% increase, after already having the smallest second-week drop ever for a horror movie – it jumped 39.3% from its opening weekend.
Returning to the discussion of Backrooms, even a conservative estimate suggests it will have the biggest opening weekend of any horror movie released in 2026. It’s expected to significantly outperform Scream 7 ($63.6 million), which was previously the only horror film this year to open with over $20 million (along with Obsession, which opened with $17.2 million).
The film is predicted to have the biggest opening weekend of any A24 release ever, and is expected to be the third-highest-grossing domestic debut of 2026. It’s forecast to outperform films like The Devil Wears Prada 2, Project Hail Mary, and The Mandalorian and Grogu in its opening weekend. Only Michael and The Super Mario Galaxy Movie are expected to have earned more during their initial releases.
The horror film Backrooms is a standout debut for director Kane Parsons, continuing the trend of YouTubers successfully transitioning to feature-length horror. The film, directed by sketch comedian Curry Barker, is expected to surpass $100 million domestically this weekend – a remarkable return on its $750,000 budget. It follows other recent successes like Markiplier’s Iron Lung, which earned $51.2 million with a $3 million budget, and Chris Stuckmann’s Shelby Oaks, which grossed $8.1 million on a $1.4 million investment.
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2026-05-30 18:22