Kane Parsons' Backrooms has only just hit theaters, but the buzzy liminal horror is already looking to be one of the biggest hits of the year, and potentially A24's biggest of all time.
According to Variety, Backrooms, which is on the viral series of found-footage videos from filmmaker and VFX artist Parsons, themselves inspired by a 4chan creepypasta, has made $10.4 million in Thursday previews at the box office. This adds credence to the prediction that the horror pic will end up making a gargantuan $40 million to $50 million opening at the box office and perhaps even higher, beating out Alex Garland's political thriller Civil War.
Starring Chiwetel Ejiofor (The Life of Chuck, Mike Flanagan's The Exorcist) and Renate Reinsve (The Worst Person in the World, A Different Man), as well as Creep‘s Mark Duplass, Finn Bennett (True Detective), Lukita Maxwell (Afraid) and Avan Jogia (Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City), Backrooms follows a therapist's who has to enter the unknown to save a patient missing into a dimension beyond reality.
That Backrooms is Parsons' debut feature at just 21 years old makes this incredible feat even more impressive. The Backrooms mythology already has a keen online fanbase, particularly among Gen Z, all of whom will surely be showing up in droves to support the big screen adaptation of Parsons' original short series.
Backrooms will follow a recent slew of 2026 horror box office hits, including most recently Curry Barker's Obsession, which has already earned almost $100 million at the global box office, and could make history in doing so due to its small budget. Once again, horror fans are showing up to save the theatrical experience. You're all welcome.
