A horror film built from internet folklore, directed by a 20-year-old who never attended film school and taught himself visual effects on a secondhand laptop, has become the most successful opening in A24’s 14-year history.
Backrooms, directed by Kane Parsons known online as Kane Pixels grossed $81.4 million domestically and $118 million worldwide in its debut weekend, per Comscore estimates released Sunday, May 31.
The numbers don’t just rewrite A24’s record book. They rewrite Hollywood’s assumptions about who gets to make movies.
Parsons was 16 years old and living in Petaluma, California, when he uploaded The Backrooms: Found Footage to YouTube on January 7, 2022. He built the eerie, liminal-space world entirely using Blender and Adobe After Effects — free and low-cost tools — on a used laptop he received as a child. That first video now has over 80 million views.
His full 23-episode series has accumulated more than 224 million views total.
By February 2023, A24 had greenlit a feature film with Parsons directing. The studio, known for protecting filmmaker vision, gave him near-total creative control. The production budget was under $10 million — and to build the physical world of the film, the crew constructed over 30,000 square feet of Backrooms sets, reportedly so immersive that crew members got lost on set.
The film stars Chiwetel Ejiofor as a furniture store manager who stumbles upon a portal to an endless, unsettling dimension, alongside Renate Reinsve, Mark Duplass, Finn Bennett, and Lukita Maxwell. Producers include James Wan, Shawn Levy, and Osgood Perkins. The script was written by Will Soodik.
What separates this story from a standard box office headline is the audience it drew. According to Deadline, 88 percent of opening weekend moviegoers were under 35 — with 44 percent under 21. This was not a broad commercial blockbuster. It was a generational statement.
Parsons is now the youngest director in history to top the domestic box office, surpassing Josh Trank, who was 27 when Chronicle debuted at No. 1 in 2011. He is also the first debut director to hold A24’s all-time opening record.
Backrooms is part of a larger 2026 pattern: YouTube creators crossing into theatrical cinema with genuine commercial force. Markiplier’s Iron Lung grossed $40.8 million domestically earlier this year. Curry Barker’s Obsession similarly shattered projections for Focus Features. The pipeline is no longer an experiment — it is the new industry.
The film carries a sequel hook in its final act, and Parsons has stated publicly he is “definitely not done with Backrooms.” Given the numbers, neither is Hollywood.
