Masters of the Universe is officially flopping at the box office.
The $170M-plus He-Man reboot is opening with a measly proejected $31.1M domestically, landing at the bottom of expectations and below even early hopes of $50 mil..
Timing was ill fated .. this is a March movie not a summer blockbuster. The older generation can’t convince their kids to like this … Kids minds have moved on and the success of He-Man was a perfect place and perfect time setting, not one that crosses decades..
The advertising money didn’t do much to save this .. nostalgia for the 80s is over and the film came too late to capitalize on a growing middle age of people–a set of people that are also tired of their own past..
Can we blame Jared Leto? Nah.. it was never meant to be no matter who was cast..
Meanwhile SCARY MOVIE 6 with the Wayans back is warning over $50 mil and will be the top film of the weekend..
There are going to be a couple of things to watch very closely over the next several days, namely how well Obsession and The Backrooms perform during their next weekend at the box office now that some fresh competition is arriving.
Remember, Obsession was originally scheduled to hit streaming this week, but that date was pushed back due to its continued success in theaters. Meanwhile, The Backrooms just keeps plugging away, posting surprisingly strong numbers even on weeknights. Neither film appears ready to disappear just yet.
This week, however, brings us a pair of nostalgia-fueled challengers. One is built on 1980s superheroes and the other on early 2000s comedy. Whether either one connects with modern audiences remains to be seen.
Scary Movie 6 premieres this weekend, as does Masters of the Universe. Both films have generated anticipation and, in theory, should attract decent crowds. Yet early projections suggest that the He-Man adaptation could be surprisingly ill-fated at the box office, while Scary Movie 5 may not be nearly as funny as audiences had hoped.
While regular moviegoers have not yet fully weighed in, paid reviewers certainly have. For the most part, the reviews for Masters of the Universe have been lukewarm, while Scary Movie 6 has been getting hit even harder.
If we were to compare them to beverages, Masters of the Universe would be a flat seltzer water and Scary Movie 6 would be that same seltzer after somebody microwaved it.
As a matter of fact, when comparing the two films, Masters of the Universe should easily dominate the box office. The question is whether Generation X and older Millennials can convince their kids to care about He-Man. The kids may not be all right when it comes to 1980s nostalgia. The decade is long gone, and nostalgia for it may have finally started running out of steam.
Then again, Scary Movie has its own problem. If the jokes don’t make people laugh, nothing else really matters.
There is one important caveat, however. Critics have never been particularly fond of movies like Scary Movie. They didn’t like the earlier Scary Movie films. They didn’t like many of the National Lampoon’s movies. They weren’t exactly champions of The Naked Gun either. Irreverent comedies that exist primarily to make audiences laugh have often received a chilly reception from reviewers.
We’ll see how it all plays out.
Maybe the critics are right.
Maybe audiences will disagree.
And maybe, just maybe, Obsession and The Backrooms will once again dominate the weekend.
We just saw The Backrooms, and I’m left sort of speechless.
As the credits rolled, I found myself paying less attention to the screen and more attention to the people around me. The entire theater just sat there. Nobody rushed for the exits. Nobody immediately grabbed their phones. People looked like they were trying to process what they had just experienced.
Let me first say that I saw this at a relatively packed theater on a Sunday afternoon. Kids, adults, entire families. People who easily could have gone to see The Mandalorian instead chose The Backrooms, and that alone showcases why this movie is on track to make more than $80 million this weekend.
Kane Parsons, you did a heck of a job.
One debate we have seen all over social media and TikTok is whether you need to watch the original YouTube shorts or know all of the Backrooms lore before seeing this movie. I don’t think you do.
If you’ve seen the shorts, you’ll probably catch some Easter eggs and appreciate certain moments a little more. But prior knowledge is not required to enjoy what was created here.
At the same time, even if you know the lore, you still may not completely understand what you’ve just watched.
Here’s my interpretation.
We create the Backrooms.
The movie seems to be about how we create the insanity inside our own minds. It’s about loops and about obsession. It’s about continually wandering into places we know we shouldn’t go.
There were several scenes that genuinely left me anxious. Not jump scares, either. Those weren’t the moments that got me.
One scene involving the giant pirate-like flesh eater with its impossibly long arms reaching toward Dr Mary Kline felt claustrophobic and unsettling. Other scenes used distorted faces, fuzzy imagery, and shaky camera work that made you question whether your own eyes were playing tricks on you.
The movie was effective in a very unusual way.
It made me despise the Backrooms while simultaneously wanting to stay there.
I can’t really explain it any better than that.
Just like the characters who repeatedly venture deeper into the Backrooms because they need to discover what’s around the next corner, I think that’s exactly how many people in the audience felt. The place is terrifying, but it’s also impossible to stop exploring.
The found footage elements and flashbacks were probably the most effective use of found footage since The Blair Witch Project. The acting was so convincing that you almost leave the theater wondering if the Backrooms could somehow be real.
On my way to the bathroom after the movie, part of me felt like I might accidentally slip through a wall.
What fascinated me most, though, was the audience.
This was a packed house. The kind of crowd that twenty years ago would have definitely filled a theater for a major Star Wars release.
The times have changed.
Parents who brought younger children looked somewhat bewildered, as if they had just spent two hours watching something they didn’t fully understand. The younger kids seemed entertained but weren’t entirely sure what they had seen either ..
There were a lot of teenagers in the audience. I expected talking and cell phones lighting up.
There was none of that.
During several scenes, you could hear a pin drop.
There were also moments where the audience laughed. Not because the movie became a comedy, but because some situations were so strange and uncomfortable that people almost laughed in spite of themselves. The humor never undercut the horror. The movie maintained its credibility as a genuinely unsettling experience from beginning to end.
I’ve seen comparisons to Alfred Hitchcock, and honestly, that’s fair.
For people who don’t understand the movie, don’t want to understand the movie, or simply aren’t interested in trying to interpret it, that’s fine. They probably won’t watch it again.
Others may find themselves returning to the theater more than once.
There’s something about that buzzing yellow aura, those endless hallways, and the stained carpets that almost makes you feel like you can smell them.
The long-term success of this movie will depend on word of mouth. The initial excitement was clearly there this weekend. Fans, parents, teenagers, and entire families came out in force.
I’ve seen some people absolutely hate it.
I’ve seen others love it.
Put me firmly in the camp that loved it.
I honestly think it’s one of the greatest horror films I’ve ever seen.
Not because it was the scariest or had the best monsters with a big budget, but because it was more than a movie.
It was an experience.
For two hours, you felt like you were there.
Kane Parsons did an amazing job.
And perhaps the best review I heard wasn’t inside the theater at all.
It happened afterward in the parking lot.
On a bright, sunny early summer afternoon, families were heading back to their cars. Younger movie goers were talking about their favorite scenes. Parents were looking at each other with confused expressions.
Then one grandmother, walking away from the theater with her family, finally broke the silence.
“I’ll call you later. I need to take a break because I don’t know what the f*** that just was.”
Maybe none of us do.
But it’s the Backrooms.
It’s meant to be explored no matter what the f*** it is ..
Eyewitnesses in New England and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)’s GOES-19 satellite reported a bright fireball on Saturday, May 30, at 2:06 p.m EDT accompanied by a loud noise.
The meteor appears to have fragmented at an altitude of 40 miles over northeastern Massachusetts and southeastern New Hampshire.
The energy released at breakup is estimated to be equivalent to about 300 tons of TNT, which accounts for the loud noise.
What was that sound? We're hearing from so many people across Massachsuetts who heard a boom at approximately 2:11 p.m. — This is all that we know so far: https://t.co/F12h1ppyTQpic.twitter.com/iCICg4PXTi
We have written about how exciting the summer box office of 2026 is for horror! But back in 2001 in the stone ages of the internet, we were not that excited .. From the annals and the deeply old records, we opened the vault to see what we were saying in May 2001 about ‘cutting edge’ horror that was mostly just dull and boring…
…for your review.. were were less than enthralled then at what Hollywood was giving us..
Sit back in the chair, sip a warm Pepsi … and watch a Late Night jam session between Conan O’Brien and Martha Stewart. I am. But off in the distance flashes halloweenmovies.com’s latest Halloween 8 update. Rick Rosenthal saves the day! H20, the fabled 20th anniversary film, wasn’t too final. We needed another sequel, this being a sequel of the H20 film, which was a sequel of 1 and 2, not including 4 and 5 and especially not harboring love for 3…Season of the witch.
The May 9th flash reads: ….May 10, 2001 Star of MTV’s THE REAL WORLD SEATTLE and URBAN LEGENDS: FINAL CUT, Jacinda Barrett, has been cast in HALLOWEEN 8…
Shocking, especially since their May 10 report was filed May 9. I check my computer date. No, it’s May 9. Thought so.
Wonderful. The director adds another MTV generation star to the roster. Make some room, Busta Rhymes. Save a chair, Bianca Kajlich, and save the last dance, Sean Patrick Thomas. And if it’s not too much to ask, keep your hands in the aisle, Tyra Banks. You might be next. And you might all be in nine, unless Mike hacks you up this go around.
Speaking of which, will Carson Daly play Michael Myers? Why not reprise the role of Dr. Loomis with the ever trustworthy Kurt Loder. MTV news. All Snoop, all the time…
Clamoring Halloween fans asked to make sure Jamie Lee Curtis’ character was treated with at least some respect, maybe more than she got in H20. Sip some Bianco, Ms. Tate. What might come from the latest motions from the office of the director as told to Halloweenmovies.com as told to the American and world public as reported 4th handedly on this website is the ultimate finale of a Jamie Lee Curtis death scene. Laurie Strode, from tight pants to fatal H8 conclusion.
Rick Rosenthal, evidently signaling and end of the “Strode girl’s” work told the big honchos at halloweenmovies.com about a “strong” role for Curtis during the first half hour of the film. Read between the lines…see the blood. She will die…my sources tell me. Rumors at this point, but then again, so is Freddy Vs. Jason–for 6 years now.
Not only the absence of sense from H8 appears to be in the works, but also the missing link of Dr. Samuel Loomis’ presence. Made difficult by the death of Mr. Donald Pleasance himself…don’t worry, they gave tribute to him in the wretchedly edited H6, although they spelled his name wrong in the credits and killed his character off without remorse.
Oh, the state of modern horror. We had been Forsaken long enough, then Along Came a Spider, and Mummified again, driving out Driven, riding with Croc Dundie..again…This time in LA. An original concept. You’re not in Australia anymore, Crocodile…then again, were the Survivors? Did we put a man on the moon?
Coming soon Spiderman will save us from reality TV, maybe even be more realistic than Rob Burnett’s Survivor which subsisted from a rating bonanza and a bout of hunger in the outback….Was that Colby? Tina? Or their doubles, Mr. Mooves? The Rock left the World Wrestling Federation, Stone Cold turned heel, and Vince McMahon lost his status as engineer of a genius operation with his X(extreme)F(football)L(league). But the Rock appeared in a film for ten minutes and became an ‘actor.’
And without the drug busts of late and the possible strike that never happened, Hollywood would have been quite boring. Nicole Kidman would have been stunned to find her short handed ex husband to be gay, though he denied and sued, but the stalker was most surely fond of the rumor.
True horror has become more fascinating and sensational than even that which graces big and small screens alike. Tim McVeigh will soon die, Europeans cannot eat meat, NBC is the strongest link with their Weakest Link, and Kentucky Thoroughbreds are dying unexpectedly. Gas costs and arm and leg, plus $1.65 a gallon for regular as a whole…California is darker than even Hollywood thriller sets.
Did I mention Elvira was coming back to screen? No? Guess it can’t get scarier than this.
Horror Report Filed Thursday May 10, 2001 1:14 AM EST
The Trump administration may have just pulled the ultimate troll.
For weeks, UFO enthusiasts were told to get ready for a major reveal. A website called aliens.gov was teased, and speculation spread rapidly throughout the UFO community. Many believed it could become a hub for government disclosure related to unidentified aerial phenomena, extraterrestrial life, or long-classified files.
UFO journalist and investigative reporter Jeremy Corbell expressed concerns that things might not be exactly what they seemed. As it turns out, that concern was well-founded.
When aliens.gov went live, the site wasn’t about extraterrestrials at all. Instead, it focused on aliens of a different kind: illegal immigration. The website’s messaging stated that “they have walked among us for 60 years” and proceeded as an anti-immigration platform rather than a UFO disclosure portal.
Now, to be fair, we don’t yet know what the long-term plans for the website are. It is entirely possible that information regarding UFOs, UAPs, or even what some would call aliens of the third and fourth kind could eventually appear there. But as of right now, that’s not what people found.
The reaction has been predictable. Those who have spent years following the disclosure movement feel frustrated and misled. Meanwhile, many who never trusted the Trump administration’s promises regarding UFO disclosure are feeling vindicated. In their eyes, the ultimate trolling job just happened.
Whether the website eventually becomes a legitimate source of information remains to be seen. What we are witnessing right now, however, is a segment of Trump’s own support base becoming disappointed. Many people who believed he would be the “disclosure president” are suddenly questioning whether they were sold a promise that was never intended to be fulfilled.
And honestly, why not join the club?
A lot of Americans, regardless of political affiliation, have looked at the visual images of the White House coming out of Washington this week and wondered the same thing: if we’ve somehow stumbled into an episode of Idiocracy, how exactly do we find our way back out?
Box office watchers are saying to prepare for a possible shock this weekend.. both BACKROOMS and OBSESSION continue to score high and rake in cash … Meanwhile the 2000s called and asked for the Mandalorian back..
MORE..
Kane Parsons has won over a younger generation.. his film is connecting with the under-35 demo (a massive 87% turnout since Thursday night) with Backrooms now on track to hoard a $76M to $79M after a $33M-$35M Friday at 3,442 theaters, which includes Thursday night’s $10.4M. Some are expecting an $80 mil opening!
But even bigger is Curry Barker’s horror world..
A24/Chernin Entertainment co-financed movie isn’t even hurting business for Focus Features’ Curry Barker Obsession, which is going over $100M in its third frame after what’s shaping up to be a 3-day of $25M at 2,780 theaters …
Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu has seen a 69% drop from its first week..
The summer of 2026 is already shaping up to be the summer that changes horror… and possibly movies in general.
There’s a new generation of young directors making creative horror films such as Obsession and Backrooms.. and especially with Obsession, there’s been a word-of-mouth popularity surge that really hasn’t been seen since probably The Blair Witch Project. It became the sleeper hit of the late spring season almost entirely because people kept telling other people to go see it. Audiences wanted to know what all the buzz was about, and once they got there, they thoroughly enjoyed it.
The movie is getting rave reviews and, more importantly, it feels different. That’s the key.
For too long horror has relied on remakes of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, The Exorcist, and countless recycled ideas from the past. People grew tired of it. The villains that once terrified audiences during the late 20th century slowly started becoming pop culture jokes instead of actual horror icons.
But this new breed of horror filmmakers is giving audiences something fresh again.
Obsession is an absolutely perfect example of that. The movie reportedly only cost around $750,000 to make, yet it’s already tracking toward potentially making close to $100 million. The profit margins are insane, but it’s not just about profit. People are genuinely enjoying the art behind what this movie provided. They’re talking about it afterward. They’re debating it and recommending it to friends.
And even more interesting than the box office itself is the demographic showing up to see it.
The audience is heavily made up of the 18-to-25 crowd!
When I went to see it, I felt like a geezer… and I’m not even that old. The theater was packed with teenagers, college kids, and younger adults. That means something. Younger audiences are actually returning to theaters when a movie feels worth leaving the house for. They’re sitting through the 25 minutes of ads and commercials and eventually, if you’re at AMC, that famous Nicole Kidman theater speech about why movies are better in a dark room with strangers.
For years people have cried that movie theaters were dying out, but maybe the formula was always simpler than we thought: people will still go to theaters for movies that are actually good. Go figure..
And horror has always been on the cutting edge of culture.
Horror reflects the fears, anxieties, politics, and social atmosphere of its era better than almost any other genre. The SAW movies probably would not have exploded in popularity during the 1980s, but during the War on Terror era it hit audiences at exactly the right moment. The same thing happens throughout horror history over and over again.
Oddly enough, professional wrestling and horror movies might be two of the greatest indicators of where society is emotionally at any given time. Both constantly evolve alongside culture, controversy, fear, anger, escapism, and public mood.
Unfortunately horror also gets a bad reputation with the elites and Red Carpet Crowd because of the endless flood of cheap, lazy, ridiculous films pushed out simply to make a quick dollar. But there’s a new generation of filmmakers emerging right now with creativity, atmosphere, originality, and actual vision. They’re changing not only horror itself, but possibly the movie industry as a whole because their success is proving audiences still care deeply about cinema when it feels unique.
Now we’re on the verge of another major moment in the summer of 2026.. this is really not an overstatement but clearly a cultural moment is being defined by a new set of talented people .. FINALLY..
As this post is being written, all eyes are beginning to shift toward Backrooms, directed by young filmmaker Kane Parsons, known online to many as Kane Pixels. There’s a real possibility that this film pushes things even further and helps cement the summer of 2026 as a turning point for modern filmmaking.
For those paying attention, something historic honestly feels like it’s happening here.
You can feel it in the air.
Movies do not have to be what they once were in order to succeed. In fact, if you simply recreate movies exactly the way they used to be made, chances are audiences may not care anymore. People want something different. They want creativity and atmosphere.. along with originality. They want filmmakers willing to take risks again.
And this new spirit of filmmaking is finally giving audiences that thing they’ve been searching for.
So cheers to good movies… and cheers to hopefully seeing full movie theaters again in your neck of the woods.
Because this weekend people will undoubtedly be lining up excitedly to see Backrooms… and maybe, just maybe, another horror film will make history.
We just got finished watching the The Boroughs on and we are highly recommending it. \First off, this review is going to stay mostly spoiler free, and honestly, we recommend you go into the show that way as well, binge away or space it out.. there is a lot to ‘consume’ in this show.
Let’s go through some of the positives and negatives.
The biggest compliment that can be given is this: this feels a lot like Stranger Things, just with an elderly population.
As a matter of fact, the very last sequence of episode eight gave off serious vibes of the final scene from the first season of Stranger Things. And maybe that’s not surprising considering the Duffer Brothers are executive producers. To clarify, they didn’t actually write the show, but their fingerprints are definitely all over the atmosphere and tone.
Where was this spirit during Season 5!?
There’s also a mixture of classic Steven Spielberg style science fiction throughout the series, and even the theme music at times felt inspired by old-school sci-fi scores or even the theme music for M Night Shymalan’s SIGNS. Some people may call it borrowed, but honestly it feels more like a tribute to that era and genre of storytelling.
Beyond the mystery and supernatural elements, the show surprisingly carries some real emotional weight about aging, respecting the elderly, and understanding that time itself is a thief. That message becomes evident across many of the episodes, and it gives the series more heart than people may initially expect. It also chose perhaps the only Bruce Springsteen song that seems tolerable..
The soundtrack was solid, the graphics and effects were fun, and nearly every episode ended with some sort of cliffhanger that kept us wanting to immediately continue.
If there’s one major complaint, it’s honestly that the episodes were too short. There just wasn’t enough episode in some of the episodes. Several ran under 47 or so minutes, and with credits lasting around five minutes each, they moved very quickly. But if anything, maybe that gives fans hope that a season two could be filmed and released faster, especially considering the glitchy ending this season leaves viewers with.
Overall, this show is highly recommended. It has a great summer feeling to it, it’s creative, it’s different, and for Stranger Things fans longing for something remotely similar, this absolutely scratches that itch. It may not be the perfect replacement, but it’s a really fun addition to the genre and definitely leaves you wanting more.
The only thing we would have changed? The song “Mother” should have played during the ending credits.
Google announced several days ago that it’s moving toward a more AI-based chat box experience as opposed to its traditional and long-running search engine model. That announcement had a huge ramification almost immediately, with reports of a major increase in downloads for alternatives such as DuckDuckGo. Some reports claimed downloads jumped by around 30 percent as people began looking for search engines that still function more like the internet many of us grew up with.
It’s an interesting concept. Google is moving toward a more ChatGPT-style model in which the search engine anticipates what you’re searching for and becomes more conversational instead of simply finding the websites you wanted to find in the first place.
People who have used Google for decades know the changes over the past several years have been very noticeable. Tons of sponsored ads in the first results. Queries that come back saying there are only ten pages of results when you know there are twenty years of internet history connected to the search term you typed in. And somewhere between all the fluff, sponsored content, SEO manipulation, and results that have almost nothing to do with what you searched for, you occasionally find something genuinely useful.
Alternatives like DuckDuckGo and Startpage have increased in popularity over time, but this new wave of anti-AI sentiment will probably push that even further.
At this point, everyone is going to be watching to see just how successful Google’s initiative and transition really become. What makes this especially interesting is the timing. Colleges are now booing speakers talking about AI during graduation ceremonies. Corporations such as Chase Bank are running advertisements centered around people instead of prompts in an effort to make customers feel more comfortable and human again. Meanwhile, data centers are front and center across the country as debates rage at town halls over massive AI-related developments moving into local communities.
So Google’s reliance on AI may actually be arriving at a strange and possibly ill-timed moment given the sentiment brewing around parts of the country.
People often say, “If you don’t like AI, don’t use it.” But the counterargument is simple: companies are increasingly forcing it onto consumers regardless of whether they want it or not. That’s part of the reason DuckDuckGo and other alternatives are becoming more popular in the first place.
And that’s not to say those search engines won’t eventually become AI-driven as well. They probably will.
But one of the biggest and most interesting consequences of search engines going full AI could ultimately be the slow killing of the internet itself.
Think about it. Little websites with a wealth of information, personality, niche knowledge with bad Gifs, or just good common sense about the topics they discuss may no longer show up in search results the way they once did. Instead, users may simply receive an AI-generated answer inside a chat window without ever clicking through to the source material. Traffic to websites could absolutely collapse over time because of that.
This is a reinvention of the internet itself because Google has been instrumental for decades in determining which websites gained credibility, notoriety, popularity, or visibility.
We’ll see how it all turns out, but one thing is for sure…
The internet ain’t what it used to be.
Remember when there were dozens of search engines to choose from? Remember when different search engines gave you completely different results? Remember discovering strange little websites, forums, fan pages, conspiracy pages, archived newspaper scans, weird hobby sites, and independent voices that somehow felt more human than corporate?
That era feels like it’s ending.
Now we have chat windows and AI models that will probably anticipate your next search before you even finish typing the current one.
