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.
What started as a bizarre internet creepypasta and YouTube phenomenon has now turned into one of the most anticipated horror films of the summer. Backrooms, directed by young filmmaker Kane Parsons, is being predicted to have a potentially big box office weekend coming..
Parsons, known online for his eerie Backrooms videos that exploded in popularity on YouTube, managed to turn a simple concept of endless yellow hallways and mundane existential dread into a full-fledged feature film backed by a24films..
Some internet users began speculating that Parsons did not truly direct the film himself and that someone else may have secretly taken over production behind the scenes.
The rumor spread across social media quickly, with some people claiming that a young creator like Parsons could not have realistically handled a movie of this scale.
Mark Duplass spoke out.. he pushed back on those claims and defended Parsons. Duplass confirmed that Kane Parsons absolutely directed the film and that the speculation was absurd.
In many ways, the rumors almost speak to the disbelief some people still have that a young internet creator could successfully transition from YouTube horror shorts into a major theatrical release. But Parsons already proved with his online work that he understands atmosphere, tension, and the kind of surreal horror that modern audiences connect with.
In the end, Backrooms represents something bigger than just another horror movie release. It is yet another example of internet culture and independent creators finding their way into mainstream Hollywood.
What started as grainy videos uploaded online may now become one of the surprise horror success stories of the year.
In its second week, low budget horror OBSESSION is doing the unthinkable: RISING at the box!
For Memorial Day weekend, the film is now expected to finish with an amazing +16% hike in its 3-day for a near $20M second weekend and 4-day of $24.8M and 11-day cumulative of $55.1M. If those numbers stick, Obsession will be +18% ahead of Longlegs at the same point in time..
Here are some more internal reported numbers.
More women are showing up now at 51% versus 41% in the pic’s opening weekend, however guys like this battle of the sexes movie a little more, with a slightly higher definite recommend, 75% to 73%
Horror always seems to succeed where other genres fail. Even when critics shrug or the mainstream audience barely notices, horror has a way of finding profitability. A massive opening weekend is not always required when the budget is microscopic compared to modern blockbuster standards. Sometimes a horror movie only needs curiosity, atmosphere, and enough people willing to buy a ticket on a Friday night.
Take Obsession for instance. The film did not become the number one movie of the weekend, but it did not have to. Reports indicate the movie opened to around $16 million domestically against a production budget of only about $750,000. In an era where major studio films can lose hundreds of millions of dollars, horror once again proved why it remains one of the safest bets in entertainment.
Directed by emerging filmmaker Mark Ellison, Obsession leans heavily into psychological horror and paranoia rather than expensive visual effects. The movie stars Samara Weaving alongside Justice Smith, telling the story of a couple whose relationship spirals into terror after a seemingly harmless fixation turns dangerous. Much of the buzz surrounding the movie came from social media reactions praising its tension, disturbing imagery, and old school thriller atmosphere.
And that really is the magic formula horror continues to pull off year after year. While superhero films and giant action spectacles require enormous budgets just to survive, horror can thrive on creativity, mood, and word of mouth… If audiences are intrigued enough to show up, the genre often wins before the opening weekend is even over.
Before the new Masters of the Universe movie even arrives in theaters, one of the biggest questions surrounding the entire project may not actually be about the movie itself. It may be about toys… and whether kids even want them anymore in the modern era.
For years now, it feels like adult collectors have completely changed the toy industry. Every time a major toy line comes out, shelves are emptied by collectors, resale prices are inflated online, and the toys themselves become collectibles instead of actual toys for children. It has happened with Star Wars, Transformers, GI Joe, wrestling figures, retro reissues, and countless others. Parents sometimes walk into stores only to discover the shelves already raided by adults hunting rare variants and exclusives before kids even had a chance to see them.
That is what makes the current strategy from Mattel so interesting. It appears a conscious effort is being made to divide the line between collector products and kid-focused products. The larger premium collectibles and nostalgia-driven exclusives are still being made for longtime fans, while more affordable figures in the lower price ranges are reportedly being aimed directly at children and families. In a strange way, a moral position almost seems to be getting taken here… toys should still belong to kids. That approach may end up being one of the smartest things Mattel has done with Masters of the Universe in decades.
But the larger mystery remains the same… will modern kids even embrace He-Man?
That question becomes more complicated when it is remembered that younger audiences today have grown up in a completely different entertainment landscape than children from the 1980s. The imagination-driven era of after-school cartoons, toy aisles filled wall-to-wall with action figures, and playground mythology has largely been replaced by TikTok clips, YouTube personalities, anime, streaming services, Roblox, Minecraft, and endless fast-moving digital entertainment.
A child born after 2011, or especially after 2020, may not automatically connect with a giant sword-and-sorcery fantasy mythology the same way older generations once did.
There was a certain imagination attached to the 1980s that still carries enormous nostalgic power. He-Man and the Masters of the Universe existed in a colorful world filled with strange creatures, giant castles, cosmic battles between good and evil, and larger-than-life personalities. The sincerity of it all was part of the appeal. It was not ironic. It was not ashamed of itself. Eternia was simply allowed to be strange.
The concern now is whether that kind of mythology still works in the modern age… or whether its time has long passed.
Reportedly carrying a budget somewhere between $170 million and $200 million, the new film is not being treated like a niche experiment. A massive theatrical rollout is expected, with projections pointing toward a wide release in roughly 3,500 to 4,000 theaters when the film arrives on June 5, 2026. The runtime is also being reported at approximately 132 minutes, making it a fairly lengthy fantasy blockbuster.
But we are already hearing about early pre-sales that are not meeting their target.
That runtime may become part of the problem. A prediction is going to be made here… the movie will probably have a decent opening weekend fueled by nostalgia, curiosity, and longtime fans, but may ultimately fall flat afterward. Toy sales for the kid-focused line may also end up weaker than expected, while adult collectors will likely scoop up the premium and nostalgia-driven figures almost immediately. Of course, reality may prove this prediction completely wrong, and honestly it would be great if that happened. A genuine new He-Man sensation taking over pop culture again would actually be pretty incredible to witness.
Still, there is skepticism.
The movie may simply be too long to fully appeal to younger children unless the pacing is nonstop action from beginning to end. But at the same time, constant action for over two hours involving characters that many kids have never seen before could become overwhelming rather than exciting. Modern audiences, especially younger viewers, often need emotional anchors before they become invested in giant fantasy worlds. If there is no attachment to the characters themselves, endless spectacle can start to blur together.
That may be the biggest challenge facing Eternia in 2026.
Adults already care about He-Man. Adults already understand Skeletor, Castle Grayskull, Battle Cat, and the mythology. But the future of the franchise will not really be decided by nostalgia-driven collectors. It will be decided by whether children begin asking for the toys, pretending to be the characters, wearing the shirts, arguing about who is stronger, and carrying Eternia into an entirely new generation.
That is the real test.
And right now, nobody truly knows whether Masters of the Universe is about to become the next great fantasy revival… or simply another relic of the 1980s trying one last time to survive in a completely different world.
As the new Masters of the Universe film gets ready for its big unveiling, rumor has it that it will run for more than two hours. Hardcore fans are excited, but the jury is still out on whether new audiences will be acclimated to Eternia… or if this is just going to turn into a full-blown nostalgia bloodbath for the true believers.
The new film is being directed by Travis Knight, the same mind behind Bumblebee, and is backed by Amazon MGM Studios. Nicholas Galitzine steps into the role of Prince Adam/He-Man, with Camila Mendes as Teela and Jared Leto taking on Skeletor. Early details suggest a larger, more grounded take on Eternia, blending fantasy with a more cinematic scope than previous attempts. It’s aiming big… whether it lands that way is another question entirely.
So at this time, a trip back into the vault of Horror Report ramblings is in order, where a 2019 article surfaced discussing the fabled rumors of a new movie being created. That was so many years ago… and so many timelines ago. But in that article, a moral adversity to the original 1980s live-action He-Man movie was also laid out. It wasn’t liked then… and as maturity has set in, it feels like it’s liked a little more now.
But we’ll see how much the newest He-Man movie is liked this year in comparison.
A new series, titled Scooby-Doo: Origins, just started filming in Atlanta — and it finally explains how Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy and, of course, the titular Great Dane came together to solve crimes and unmask foes under Mystery Inc.
According to Netflix’s Tudum, the new show opens with longtime friends Daphne and Shaggy in their last year of camp, when they get entangled in a mystery involving a Great Dane puppy (Scooby, of course) who may have witnessed a supernatural murder. They team up with “scientific townie Velma and the strange but ever-so-handsome new kid Freddy.”
For years, the Road Runner has been uncaught because of defective products from ACME.. Wile E. Coyote never had a chance..
Will Forte will now represent.
This movie has been shelved for a long time but later this summer, on August 29, it is finally being released into theaters..
Deadline reports, while Warner Bros. long ago completed and tested the film, also starring John Cena and Lana Condor, they shelved it all the way back in the fall of 2023 amid rampant cost-cutting efforts led by Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav. The move ignited outrage not only among the film’s key creatives, but across Hollywood at large, leading the studio to shop the project. Multiple studios placed bids, but Ketchup Entertainment wound up landing the project in a deal valued at around $50M, as we first reported last March.
It was shelved in 2023 when WBD CEO David Zaslav decided to cancel it – along with a number of other films and shows – in order to receive a tax write-down.
Even Will Forte said at the time, “My thoughts were that it’s f–king bulls–t. It is such a delightful movie. It deserves so much better than it got,” he said. “I can not tell you possibly why the decision was made to not release it. But it makes my blood boil.”
Michael Jackson’s biopic movie maybe the worst reviewed Michael movie from critics since Michael Myers and Halloween ..but guess what, it doesn’t seem to matter anymore. Their voices have become meaningless!
