A24’s “Backrooms” opened to $81.4 million across 3,442 North American theaters this weekend, the biggest domestic debut in the studio’s 13-year history and a number built almost entirely on young moviegoers. Variety reported the three-day total Sunday, with worldwide grosses reaching $118 million against a production budget that Deadline and The Hollywood Reporter both put at under $10 million.
The previous A24 record belonged to Alex Garland’s “Civil War,” which opened to $25.5 million in 2024. “Backrooms” more than tripled it. Directed by 20-year-old Kane Parsons, the film adapts the viral YouTube series he started posting at 16, and it now ranks as the second-highest domestic grosser in A24 history after one weekend, trailing only “Marty Supreme” by less than $10 million.
Who showed up tells the real story. According to Deadline, men under 25 made up 29 percent of the opening-night audience and women under 25 another 26 percent, while moviegoers over 35 accounted for just 12 percent. Women under 25 gave the film its strongest marks, a 75 percent positive score and a 60 percent definite recommend. EntTelligence counted 5.8 million admissions over the frame, with 36 percent of tickets sold for showings after 8 p.m. Half the audience came specifically because it was an A24 release, per Deadline’s exit polling, and the other half came as fans of the “Backrooms” property itself.
That property has a long internet tail. The original creepypasta surfaced on 4chan years ago, describing an endless maze of empty, yellow-walled office rooms lit by buzzing fluorescents. Parsons turned it into a series of found-footage shorts that pulled in tens of millions of views before A24 and Chernin Entertainment came aboard to finance the feature. Will Soodik wrote the screenplay. The cast includes Oscar nominees Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve plus Emmy winner Mark Duplass, with Finn Bennett, Lukita Maxwell, and Avan Jogia in supporting roles. James Wan, Shawn Levy, and Dan Levine produced through Atomic Monster and 21 Laps. The film opened May 29 and carries a 90 percent Certified Fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes against a softer 74 percent audience score.
A sequel is already locked. Parsons told Variety he is under contract with A24 for another installment, and he framed the first film as one piece of a much larger plan. “Sequels are more than an option, it’s been the intention since 2022,” Parsons told Polygon. He described the debut as the opening chapter of a story he wants to tell across several films, arguing he could not reach what he sees as the core of the idea inside a single feature. TheWrap noted the ending sets up the mysterious Async Research Institute, with Reinsve’s Dr. Mary Kline at the center, as the engine for whatever comes next.
The weekend lifted the whole market. Rentrak put the overall domestic gross at $178.9 million, up 20 percent against the same frame a year ago, when “Lilo & Stitch” led its second weekend. The 2026 domestic box office now sits 11.3 percent ahead of last year’s January-through-May pace at $3.68 billion. Disney’s “Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu” took third in its second weekend with a roughly 70 percent drop, while Focus Features’ “Obsession” rose again to $26.4 million in its third frame, pushing past $104 million domestic to become the studio’s top-grossing release ever in North America.
No release date for the second “Backrooms” has been announced. A24 has the first film playing exclusively in theaters now.
