He has covered everything from Marvel to the Oscars, and Marvel at the Oscars. He also writes obsessively about the box office, charting the many hits and misses that are released weekly, and how their commercial performance shapes public perception. In his time at Collider, he has also helped drive diversity by writing stories about the multiple Indian film industries, with a goal of introducing audiences to a whole new world of cinema.
Shattering its already outrageous pre-release box-office projections, the new horror film Backrooms is breaking records as we speak. It’s also working hand-in-hand with the holdover hit Obsession to launch what seems like a new era in not just horror, but in mainstream Hollywood as a whole. No one would have expected a movie made by a 20-year-old debutant to gross more than Oppenheimer in its opening weekend, but that’s exactly what’s happening with Backrooms. Directed by Kane Parsons, the film was initially eyed to gross around $25 million in its domestic debut, a number that subsequently ballooned to around $45 million, and then $75 million. Don’t be surprised if it hits the $90 million mark come Monday’s final report.
For now, a handful of achievements are clear. Backrooms will break A24‘s domestic debut roughly thrice over, and will become one of the indie studio’s highest-grossing movies ever in just three days of release. It will also become A24’s top-grossing domestic release of all time in its first week, overtaking Marty Supreme‘s record of around $95 million. This would have been a remarkable achievement for any filmmaker, but it’s made all the more special because Parsons was a teen when he signed on. Like Obsession director Curry Barker, Parsons honed his skills on YouTube before making the jump to Hollywood.
Your instincts, your strengths, and your particular way of thinking under pressure point to one villain you actually have a fighting chance against. Everyone else — good luck.
Jason is relentless, but he is also predictable — and that is the gap you would exploit.
Michael watches before he moves. He is patient, methodical, and almost impossible to detect — until it’s too late for anyone who isn’t paying close enough attention.
Freddy wins by getting inside your head — using your own fears, your own memories, your own subconscious as weapons against you. That strategy requires a target who can be destabilised.
Pennywise is ancient, shapeshifting, and feeds on terror — but it has one critical vulnerability: it cannot function against someone who genuinely stops being afraid of it.
Chucky’s greatest advantage is that nobody takes him seriously until it’s already too late. He exploits the gap between how something looks and what it actually is.
Obsession is eying another increase in weekend-to-weekend box office revenue, which is unprecedented in itself. Together with Backrooms, the two movies will contribute more than $100 million in domestic box office revenue this weekend. This overperformance spells doom for Disney’s The Mandalorian and Grogu, which is looking a greater second-weekend drop than Solo: A Star Wars Story. Backrooms grossed around $38 million on opening day, which is a greater haul than those of John Wick: Chapter 4 and Dune: Part Two. Starring Oscar nominees Renate Reinsve and Chiwetel Ejiofor, the critically acclaimed movie holds a “Certified Fresh” 90% score on Rotten Tomatoes. The aggregator website’s consensus reads, “A startlingly assured feature debut from director Kane Parsons, Backrooms bends the liminal spaces that have haunted the internet for years into a horror film that’s as mesmerizing as it is terrifying.” The movie has also earned a B- grade on CinemaScore, which is below the mark for mainstream horror. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates on the box-office fireworks this weekend.
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