The feature film adaptation of the viral YouTube project Backrooms earned a record $9 million in pre-screenings. This allowed "The Backrooms" to surpass "Scream 7" ($7.8 million) and "John Wick 4" ($8.9 million), and also approach the results of "Eternals" ($9.5 million) and "Five Nights at Freddy's" ($10.3 million).
Such a successful start forced analysts to raise their debut weekend forecasts. If previously the film was predicted to earn around $40-45 million, now it is expected to bring in $60-80 million. For a horror film with a budget of $10 million, this could be a phenomenal result.
This once again highlights the influence that creators from YouTube have on modern cinema. Right now, the low-budget psychological thriller "Obsession" by blogger Curry Barker is performing excellently at the box office.
With a budget of $1 million, the film grossed $58.5 million in the US and about $79 million worldwide in two weekends. Moreover, in the second weekend, box office revenues grew by 39% due to word-of-mouth, and last Wednesday, the film surpassed "The Mandalorian and Grogu" in daily box office: $5.6 million versus $4.1 million for the adventures of Baby Yoda.
In turn, "The Backrooms" is already threatening to displace "Masters of the Universe." The Amazon MGM Studios and Mattel blockbuster is only predicted to earn about $25 million in domestic box office during its opening weekend, which will coincide with the second week of 20-year-old Kane Parsons' film in the US. Analysts are seriously calling the horror film one of the reasons for the weak expectations for He-Man's return.
If the predictions come true, "The Backrooms" will become the highest-grossing debut in A24's history and further solidify the influence of internet content creators on modern cinema.