20-year-old filmmaker’s ‘Backrooms’ rocks Hollywood with record-setting debut

After just one weekend, “Backrooms” has secured its status as a cinematic phenomenon with an unexpectedly strong box office performance.

The psychological horror movie directed by 20-year-old Sonoma County resident Kane Parsons grossed $81 million on May 29-31, according to media data company Comscore. That gave it the weekend’s top spot and claim to several records:

• Youngest filmmaker to hold the No. 1 spot. Parsons unseated Josh Trank, who was 27 when “Chronicle” opened in 2012.

• Biggest debut for an original horror movie. “Backrooms” took in less than either of the two parts of “It” (2017 and 2019), but those were based on a Stephen King novel that had previously been made into a miniseries.

• Biggest opening weekend for a movie from the company A24. Previously, it was “Civil War ” (2024).

• Biggest domestic take for a movie from A24. It took “Backrooms” two more days to grab this spot, crossing the $100 million threshold on June 2. Previously, the A24 record was “Marty Supreme” (2025), with domestic box office of $96 million. In global earnings, “Backrooms” already has the company’s No. 3 spot, behind “Marty Supreme” and “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”

“Backrooms” — set in San Jose — extends the canon of Parsons’ YouTube series, which he began making when he was a student at Marin School of the Arts, in Novato. The movie was reportedly completed for under $10 million; it was largely filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, and stars Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve.

In its theatrical breakout, it’s joined by another surprise hit, “Obsession,” which opened May 15 and has had two bigger weekends since. That made it the first movie since “E.T.,” in 1982, to increase its box office in its second and third weekends.

The horror movie 1-2 punch dropped Disney’s “Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu” to third place at the box office on its second weekend.

Like Parsons, “Obsession”‘s director, 26-year-old Curry Barker, has YouTube roots, as does Mark Fischbach, whose self-released sci-fi/horror movie “Iron Lung” has grossed $51 million this year.

Parsons will turn 21 on June 18. In comparison, Sam Raimi was 23 when “The Evil Dead” had its wide release; Kevin Smith was 23 when “Clerks” was screened at Sundance and 24 at its theatrical release; and Steven Spielberg was 24 when his TV movie “Duel” came out.