The pipeline for high-end horror on YouTube looks very strong this weekend.
Topping the box office was “Backrooms,” a feature film expanding on Kane Parsons’ YouTube video series. A feature-length film featuring the eerie discovery of a mysterious, physics-defying office space (taken from a 4chan thread).
Parsons’ “Backroom” earned $38 million on Friday and is expected to gross $80 to $90 million at the domestic box office this weekend alone. For indie studio A24, this is their biggest opening to date. The previous record was held by “Civil War,” which earned $25.7 in its first weekend of release.
The second film, ‘Obsession’, is arguably even more impressive. In fact, the film only made $8 million on Friday, with an estimated weekend haul of $28.5 million. But the film (about a nightmarish romantic wish gone wrong) has already grossed more in its second weekend than its first, and now its third weekend is set to grow another 19%.
For context, most wide-release films typically fall between 50 and 70 percent in their second weekend. Last year’s ‘Sinus’ was evaluated as an unusual word-of-mouth success, showing a drop rate of less than 5%. Excluding Christmas releases (which have greater staying power thanks to the holidays), weekend-to-weekend growth is unheard of. According to The Hollywood Reporter, ‘Obsession’ is the first film since 1982 to grow in both its second and third weekends.
And like ‘Backroom,’ ‘Obsession’ is a horror film directed by Curry Barker, a filmmaker who first made his name on YouTube. Curry Barker released the hour-long found footage horror film ‘Milk & Serial’ on YouTube in 2024. Barker has already filmed his next film and is set to direct a new remake of ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.’
Both releases follow the incredible success of the video game version of “Iron Lung,” released earlier this year. Directed by Mark Fischbach, better known by his YouTube account Markiplier, ‘Iron Lung’ grossed nearly $41 million domestically.
In a recent New York Times article on “The YouTube Boom as a Filmmaker,” Mark DelVecchio, general manager of Rutgers Cinema, noted that “many YouTubers have tried to make the leap to mainstream cinema but have fallen short.” What sets Parsons, Barker, and Fischbach apart? Delvecchio said that despite their youth (Parsons is 20 and Barker is 26), they both have “longevity.”
“Some of them have been making videos for a very long time now and this is how you grow a loyal audience that will follow you,” he added.
But I haven’t seen ‘Backroom’ yet (I’m looking forward to it tomorrow). have I watched ‘Obsessed’. So I can confirm that you will never be disappointed. I watched most of the second half with my fingers covering my eyes, and even screamed a few times.
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