The Backrooms may be empty, but movie theaters are full. The buzzy new A24 horror movie was directed by 20-year-old filmmaker Kane Parsons, adapting his creepypasta web series of the same, and follows the discovery of a potentially infinite series of creepy, largely empty yellow rooms in the basement of a furniture store. 2026’s Backrooms boasts a small but star-studded cast that includes Oscar nominees Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve, Emmy winner Mark Duplass, Finn Bennett, and Avan Jogia. It made a splash ahead of its May 29 debut by earning a Certified Fresh Rotten Tomatoes score of 90%. Per Deadline, as of Saturday morning, Backrooms is expected to hit a 3-day total between $85 and $88 million at the domestic box office by the end of its opening weekend. It has been rocketing past its early projections. Box Office Theory had its estimated debut set between $30 and $45 million as of May 21, rising to $50 to $68 million as of May 27 and then (per Deadline) $76 to $79 million as of May 29. This dazzling number has secured it a spot at No. 1 at the domestic box office over the weekend, earning more than three times the sophomore frame of last weekend’s No. 1 title, The Mandalorian and Grogu. The Mandalorian and Grogu is only expected to earn $25 million this weekend, a harsh week-on-week drop of 69%. It is expected to crash and burn at No. 3, falling behind the sleeper horror hit Obsession, which is in the middle of its own spectacular run. The sleeper hit is expected to climb a nearly unprecedented 19% this weekend with $28.5 million after earning the smallest week 2 drop in horror history, rising 39.3% from its debut. Back to Backrooms. Even if it hits the lower bound of its projected debut range, it will earn the best domestic opening weekend so far for a 2026 horror movie, greatly outdoing the massive franchise hit Scream 7 ($63.6 million), which was previously the only horror movie of the year to debut higher than $20 million (including Obsession, which opened to the tune of $17.2 million). In fact, it is set to earn the biggest debut for A24 in the studio’s history as well as the third-best domestic debut of 2026 across all genres, beating The Devil Wears Prada 2 ($76.6 million), Project Hail Mary ($80.5 million), and even The Mandalorian and Grogu ($81.6 million). It has only fallen behind the megahit music biopic Michael ($97.2 million) and the animated video game adaptation sequel The Super Mario Galaxy Movie ($131.7 million).

This stellar debut for Backrooms sees director Kane Parsons becoming the latest YouTuber to make a splash with big-screen horror. Obsession, which is set to pass the $100 million domestic milestone this weekend (more than 133 times its reported $750,000 budget), was helmed by sketch comedian Curry Barker, while “Let’s Play” video icon Markiplier’s horror game adaptation Iron Lung earned $51.2 million against a reported $3 million earlier this year and viral film critic Chris Stuckmann’s movie Shelby Oaks grossed $8.1 million against $1.4 million in late 2025.

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Release Date

May 27, 2026

Runtime

110 minutes

Director

Kane Parsons

Writers

Will Soodik

Producers

Chris Ferguson, Dan Cohen, Dan Levine, James Wan, Jenno Topping, Kori Adelson, Michael Clear, Osgood Perkins, Peter Chernin, Roberto Patino, Shawn Levy