All eyes are on the summer box office movies. Predictions have already begun that perhaps Masters of the Universe could come in under projections, but we’ll see…the press for the film has been good so far. Another upcoming film, however, has been operating in a much more low-key fashion, and that film is Backrooms.
Directed by Kane Parsons, the movie has quickly become one of the more fascinating horror stories of the summer. Many online know Parsons better as Kane Pixels from YouTube, where his eerie and surreal Backrooms videos gained millions of views and helped modernize internet horror for a younger audience. What started with creepypasta lore and grainy found-footage style videos may now be turning into a legitimate theatrical box office hit.
Several websites, including Box Office Theory, are predicting that Backrooms could bring in somewhere between $25 and $33 million domestically during its opening weekend of May 29th through the 31st. That is a pretty bullish number, and if the film finds strong word of mouth, people are already saying Backrooms could emerge as an early summer sleeper hit.
What began as plain old mundane horror rooted in creepypastas and YouTube culture has now evolved into a major feature film. Despite some naysayers claiming Parsons could never pull off a movie on this scale, he did exactly that.
He has quickly become one of the younger directors in horror who has been changing things to better match the audiences of today while also proving that genuinely good material can still rise from unconventional places on the internet.
In the end, Backrooms is currently being projected to bring in somewhere between $71 million and $79 million during its total run in the United States and Canada. That would still place it below Marty Supreme, which reportedly brought in $96 million, but Backrooms may have a tougher road when it comes to long-term staying power. The movie will eventually find itself competing with heavy hitters like Masters of the Universe, Scary Movie 6, Disclosure Day, and Toy Story 6 throughout June.
It is a loaded summer full of potential blockbuster hits…but one of the earliest surprises of the season could very well end up being Backrooms.
