The prestige-horror line from YouTube seems very strong this weekend.
It is an expansion of the feature film “Backrooms”, which took the number one position at the box office A series of YouTube videos by Kane Parsons featuring eerie found footage of a mysterious office space ( 4chan thread) which defies physics.
It will be “Backrooms,” directed by Parsons bringing in about $81 million at the local box office this weekend only. It’s the biggest opening ever for indie studio A24 — the previous record was held by “Civil War,” which earned $25.7 million in its first weekend of release.
Movie number two, Obsession, captures something even more impressive. Granted, its weekend estimate is just $26.4 million — but the film (about a romantic dream gone wrong) has already earned more in its second weekend than it did in its first, and is now on track for another 10 percent increase in its third weekend.
For context, the widest release films typically drop between 50 and 70 percent in their second weekend; Last year’s “The Sinners” was watched an extraordinary word-of-mouth success because it fell below 5 percent. Outside of the Christmas releases (which have more staying power thanks to the holidays), increasing unheard of from weekend to weekend – The Hollywood Reporter reported on this“Obsession” is the first film since 1982 to grow in both its second and third weekends.
And like “Back Rooms,” “Obsession” is a horror film directed by someone making his name on YouTube for the first time — Curry Barkerwhose YouTube filmmaking has reached its peak (for now). An hour-long horror film “Milk & Serial” has been found Released in 2024. Barker has already filmed his next film and is preparing to shoot a new remake of “Texas Sawmill”.
Two releases follow The surprise success of “Iron Lung” video game adaptation released earlier this year. Directed by Mark Fischbach — better known by his YouTube handle Markiplier — “The Iron Lung” grossed nearly $41 million domestically.
In New York Times article Mark DelVecchio, general manager of Rutgers Cinema, noted recently that “many YouTubers have tried to make the leap into mainstream films and come up short.” What makes Parsons, Barker and Fischbach different? DelVecchio said despite their youth (Parsons 20, Barker 26) they all have “longevity.”
“Now some of them have been making videos for a very long time and that’s how you develop a loyal audience that will follow you,” he said.
Both films came ahead of The Mandalorian and Grogu, the first Star Wars film in seven years, which was on track to gross $24 million this weekend.
By the way, although I haven’t seen “Back Rooms” yet (fingers crossed for tomorrow), I have there is Saw “Obsession”. So I can confirm that it’s not entirely disappointing – I watched with my fingers crossed for most of the second half and even cried out a few times.
This article was first published on May 30. It has been updated with current box office numbers.
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