A24 has spent years building its reputation on bold, unconventional storytelling, turning smaller films into cultural talking points. But even by the studio’s standards, what “Backrooms” is doing right now feels unreal. In just over a week and a half, the horror sensation has rewritten the company’s record books, becoming the biggest worldwide release in A24’s history and its first movie to cross the $200 million mark at the global box office.
Directed by YouTuber-turned-filmmaker Kane Parsons, the film has collected an impressive $212 million worldwide so far. Out of that total, $135 million has come from North American theaters alone. Those numbers push it past the lifetime earnings of Timothée Chalamet’s “Marty Supreme,” which had previously held the crown as A24’s highest-grossing film globally with $191 million.
What’s perhaps even more astonishing is the speed at which it happened. “Backrooms” has reached these milestones after only 10 days in theaters.
Gen Z Turned an Internet Nightmare Into a Box Office Event
The success of “Backrooms” didn’t arrive out of nowhere. The project was already carrying a devoted online following thanks to Kane Parsons’ viral web series inspired by the internet myth of endless yellow rooms and unsettling liminal spaces. Yet few could have predicted that a concept born from YouTube horror culture would explode into one of the year’s biggest theatrical events.
Young audiences, particularly Gen Z moviegoers, have embraced the film as more than just another horror release. Social media discussions, fan theories, reaction videos and repeat viewings have helped turn it into a communal experience. That enthusiasm translated directly into ticket sales.
The movie opened with a massive $81 million domestic debut, setting a new benchmark for A24’s biggest opening weekend ever. The previous record belonged to Alex Garland’s 2024 thriller “Civil War,” which launched with $25.5 million domestically. “Backrooms” didn’t just beat that figure; it more than tripled it.
Its second weekend naturally saw a decline, but even that dip came with an asterisk. Ticket sales fell by 70%, a figure that would normally raise eyebrows. Instead, the film still managed to pull in a remarkable $25.8 million from 3,565 theaters between Friday and Sunday, numbers most studios would gladly celebrate.
Considering A24 and Chernin Entertainment reportedly co-financed the movie for around $10 million, the horror hit has already transformed into one of the most profitable projects in the studio’s history.
Overseas Audiences Are Equally Invested
The phenomenon isn’t limited to North America. International audiences have embraced “Backrooms” with the same intensity, helping propel the film’s worldwide total to historic heights.
The movie has earned $77 million across 57 overseas territories to date. It shattered A24 opening weekend records in 41 countries, proving that its strange and unsettling premise translates across cultures and languages.
It also debuted at No. 1 in 42 markets, including Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and Italy. Those aren’t small achievements for a studio traditionally associated with arthouse prestige releases rather than crowd-driven blockbusters.
Latin America has emerged as the film’s strongest overseas market. The region has contributed $24.2 million so far, enough to make “Backrooms” A24’s biggest title ever there. Meanwhile, Australia and New Zealand generated $7.9 million, allowing the film to surpass “Marty Supreme” as the studio’s highest-grossing release in those territories as well.
For a company known for films like “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” “Lady Bird,” and “Moonlight,” this global commercial dominance marks a dramatic evolution of its identity.
The Strange Story at the Center of the Craze
Part of the appeal lies in the movie’s deceptively simple but deeply unsettling premise.
“Backrooms” follows a furniture store owner, played by Chiwetel Ejiofor, who discovers a hidden doorway leading into an endless maze of ordinary-looking rooms. The spaces themselves aren’t inherently frightening. Fluorescent lighting hums overhead. Beige walls stretch endlessly. Familiar environments become alien through repetition and emptiness.
When his character disappears within this impossible labyrinth, his therapist, portrayed by Renate Reinsve, enters the mysterious structure in an attempt to bring him home.
The concept taps into a modern kind of anxiety. The fear isn’t necessarily monsters jumping from dark corners. It’s the dread of isolation, disorientation and being trapped in places that should feel safe but somehow don’t. That psychological unease helped Parsons’ original web series resonate online, and the film adaptation appears to have amplified those fears for theatrical audiences.
Kane Parsons, who first built his audience through YouTube, now finds himself overseeing one of the most profitable horror stories of recent years. His leap from internet creator to blockbuster filmmaker may end up becoming one of Hollywood’s defining success stories of this decade.
A sequel has not been officially announced yet. Still, Parsons has already hinted that the world of “Backrooms” could expand into something much larger. Given the extraordinary box office performance and the audience appetite surrounding the property, it would be surprising if this eerie maze of endless rooms remained a one-time visit.
For A24, the film represents more than a financial victory. It signals that the studio can preserve its creative identity while also producing major commercial hits capable of competing on a global stage. For audiences, it proves that the next billion-dollar idea might not come from a comic book universe or a decades-old franchise. Sometimes, it starts with a strange internet story about a room that never seems to end.
