The new guard of YouTube horror creators dominates Hollywood as Kane Parson’s Backrooms delivered an $81.5m record A24 debut atop the North American charts while Curry Barker’s Obsession became Focus Features’ biggest domestic hit on $104.7m.
Powered by Gen Z film-goers and a priceless in-built fanbase, Parsons’ feature version of his YouTube found footage shorts outpaced A24’s prior opening weekend record holder Civil War on $25.5m in 2024 by more than three times and set multiple records.
A24 said Backrooms produced the biggest R-rated debut of 2026 so far; the biggest original horror debut and biggest opening weekend by a first-time feature director of an original film of all time; an all-time top 15 debut for an R-rated film; and in Parsons, who is 20, the youngest director to helm a global number one film on $118m (Screen will report international numbers on Monday).
The story starring Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve about a furniture store owner who discovers a mysterious and seemingly endless labyrinth beneath his warehouse drew a predominantly young audience: roughly 86% were aged under 35, around 66% were aged under 25, and 44% were under 21. The Gen Z age bracket is 14-29.
A24 sources said the audience came in groups and more than half cited A24 and the Backrooms universe itself as their reason for attending. On Saturday sources noted that the audience was ethnically diverse, with Latino turnout in the top markets exceeding white audiences in some cases. The film played in 3,442 venues and earned $38.4m on Friday, $24.7m on Saturday, and $18.3m on Sunday.
Chernin Entertainment and A24 financed Backrooms reportedly for under $10m and the film is heading for a highly profitable trajectory. Blumhouse-Atomic Monster produced both Backrooms and Obsession.
Speaking of Barker’s film, in its third session Obsession gained 10% and added $26.4m to reach $104.8m. Outside of Christmas holiday releases, this means that Focus’s $14m 2025 TIFF acquisition becomes the first film since E.T. in 1982 to increase its box office over the second and third weekends after last weekend’s remarkable 39% climb. Per Box Office Mojo, E.T. grew its box office for nine consecutive weekends.
Lucasfilm/Disney’s The Mandalorian And Grogu directed by Jon Favreau could not compete with the youngsters and fell a heavy 69% on $25m for a $137.4m running total after two weekends to rank third. Lionsgate’s Michael in fourth stands at an exceptional $339.9m after a 43% drop to $11.7m in the sixth weekend.
A comedy made a welcome debut in fifth place as Sony TriStar Pictures’ PG-rated The Breadwinner starring Nate Bargatze arrived on $7.5m in 3,252. And Focus Features delivered two top 10 films over the weekend as its historical thriller Pressure arrived at number seven on $5.8m from 1,829 sites.
Andrew Scott, Brendan Fraser and Kerry Condon star in the true-life story from Focus, Studiocanal and Working Title about a British meteorologist (Scott) whose calculation would determine the exact date of the Allied D-Day Normandy landings in 1944. Anthony Maras (Hotel Mumbai) directed, and the film opened ahead of the June 6 day of remembrance.
Comscore reported that overall three-day box office amounted to an estimated $179m, up 20% on the same weekend in 2025. Year-to-date stands at $3.7bn to track 11% ahead of last year by the same stage as early summer continues to roll out.
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