Backrooms Box Office Outgrosses Almost Every Other 2026 Horror Movie In Just 3 Days

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Backrooms‘ box office tally is stretching out into infinity.

A24’s new horror film, directed by 20-year-old Kane Parsons, is based on his popular online series. The movie centers around a furniture store owner, played by Chiwetel Ejiofor, who finds a mysterious door in his basement leading to a disturbing, seemingly infinite maze of empty rooms. The cast also includes Renate Reinsve, an Oscar nominee known for her work in Sentimental Value, alongside Finn Bennett (A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms), Lukita Maxwell (Shrinking), and Mark Duplass (The Morning Show).

According to Variety, the movie Backrooms is expected to earn $118 million worldwide by the end of its opening weekend. Of that, $81 million will come from theaters in the US, making it the fourth-highest opening weekend of the year so far, after The Mandalorian and Grogu, Michael, and The Super Mario Bros. Movie. The film is also projected to earn $37 million internationally. This quick success puts Backrooms on track to potentially become one of the top 20 highest-grossing films of the year in just three days.

By Sunday’s end, the horror film Backrooms will have earned more at the box office than all but two horror movies released in 2026. The surprise hit Obsession—the first feature film from comedian Curry Barker, known as “that’s a bad idea”—is expected to reach a worldwide gross of $148 million by the weekend’s close. Only Scream 7 ($208 million, the best performance in the Scream series) has earned more.

Over the past three days, the movie Backrooms has quickly become a huge success, surpassing the total worldwide earnings of all other horror films released in 2026. This includes popular franchises like Lee Cronin’s The Mummy ($90.1 million), 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple ($58.5 million), Return to Silent Hill ($47.5 million), Ready or Not 2: Here I Come ($39.5 million), and The Strangers: Chapter 3 ($10.8 million). It also outperformed newer hits and adaptations like Iron Lung ($50 million), Send Help ($94 million), Hokum ($23.5 million), and undertone ($21.6 million).

This impressive first film benefited from the popularity of Backrooms with Gen Z viewers. Deadline reports that young women under 25 make up the largest group of domestic moviegoers, accounting for 24% of ticket sales. However, movies geared towards specific fan groups often see most of their audience attend early in their release.

The horror film Iron Lung, directed by YouTuber Markiplier, saw a significant drop in ticket sales its second weekend, falling 66.3%. Other video game adaptations, Five Nights at Freddy’s and its sequel, experienced even larger declines of 76.2% and 69.7% respectively, after strong initial openings. However, A Minecraft Movie bucked this trend, with a smaller 51.8% drop from its impressive first weekend, ultimately becoming one of the year’s biggest box office successes.

It’s still unclear how well Backrooms will hold audience interest long-term, but even if it stops earning money after this weekend, it’s already a big hit. Most movies need to earn two and a half times their production cost to break even, and Backrooms, which cost around $10 million to make, has already earned over twelve times that amount. These impressive numbers suggest that director Kane Parsons could become a prominent figure in the horror genre if he makes another film like it.

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2026-05-31 18:28