Why Backrooms Was Greatly Underestimated at the Box Office

Backrooms has unexpectedly overperformed at the box office, stunning traditional industry experts with its incredible $118 million worldwide haul. Several predictions for the A24 psychological horror film had it earning somewhere in the range of $45 million to $65 million on the domestic front, but the movie has been able to rake in $81 million in its debut weekend in the US and Canada. The film was surprisingly expected to beat The Mandalorian & Grogu at the weekend box office, but its momentum alongside Curry Barker’s Obsession, has pushed the Star Wars flick down to a shocking third place. Backrooms has become a cultural phenomenon and one that is sure to send shockwaves throughout the industry.

Backrooms has smashed expectations from traditional box office experts

In its theatrical opening weekend, Backrooms has earned a total of $118 million worldwide, with $81 million coming domestically and $36 million coming overseas. The budget for this liminal-space horror film was only $10 million, making it a superb box office success right out of the gate.

This is an especially incredible result given that BoxOffice Pro made a prediction right before its release that the film would earn $45 million to $55 million domestically, saying that it “could potentially outperform our forecast and reach up to the $65M mark.” Meanwhile, BoxOfficeTheory believed that the A24 film would make $55.4 million, in the range of $50 million to $68 million, in its latest weekend forecast. That said, a follow-up report two days later offered some caveats. Encouraged by the $10.4 million Backrooms received in its Thursday previews, it noted that opening weekend ranges for the film were “all over the place,” going from a low of $55 million from conservative outlooks to “more bullish outcomes like $80-90 million.”

The box office numbers for Backrooms have already led to several records being broken. It has more than tripled the $25.5 million domestic opener of 2024’s Civil War, which previously held the domestic opener record for an A24 film. And Parsons has become the youngest director, at the age of 20, to have the number-one film at a weekend box office.

Per Variety, Jeff Bock of Exhibitor Relations said that “nobody expected this to open above $80 million,” pointing to the “obsession with ‘Backrooms’ mythology” as one of the reasons for the film’s “Marvel-sized opening weekend.” Indeed, the Backrooms creepypasta, which became an iconic meme on the internet since 2019, has resonated with Gen Z, which came out in droves to see Parsons’ interpretation on the silver screen (after he had delved into the Backrooms concept with his series on YouTube).

Roughly 85% of attendees for the movie were 35 or younger, and the marketing for Backrooms has been brilliant across social media. The analytics firm RelishMix totaled the number of views “across TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, X, and Facebook at 220M, 48% ahead of original horror norms,” according to Deadline. This should dispel the notion that younger audiences are not interested in watching films in theaters.

It also goes to show that A24 has the mobility and courage to put its weight behind auteur-driven projects. The independent entertainment company has a strong fanbase, spurred by its critically successful catalog that has already made waves this year with the horror flick Undertone, Zendaya’s The Drama, and the romantic dark comedy Pillion. With the summer break in full swing, much of that fanbase turned out to see Backrooms and has provided strong word-of-mouth for the film, which holds a stellar 90% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

The success of Backrooms is shared by Curry Barker’s Obsession, another film alongside Markiplier’s Iron Lung that has emerged from the lucrative YouTube-to-silver-screen pipeline. The wish-gone-wrong thriller has only gained momentum, earning more money every weekend at the box office since its debut. It was expected that Backrooms and Obsession would cannibalize each other to a degree, but they have instead become more of a double feature with their compellingly unique takes on the horror genre.

Source: Comingsoon.net