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.
Call it the summer of comfortity gate.. or just a refresher for fans who long for the summer of 2019 when Stranger Things season 3 got released in the fourth of July proving that one summer casln change everything ..
But we are fans.. so we will bite..
The official account went to the socials on Memorial Day to showcase a number of nostalgic images from season 3.. but some are wondering if there’s a hidden message that aa summer of stranger things is coming !!
People are wondering could this be a hint or just a cheap plot to play on the emotional fragility of fans still dealing with season 5 instability …
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%
Obsession Proves Horror Still Thrives Where Other Genres Struggle..
Horror always succeeds where other genres fail. Even a movie with a low budget can make a profit without having to become some gigantic cultural phenomenon.
OBSESSION didn’t make the top movie of its opening weekend, but it really didn’t have to. The film opened to around $16 million domestically despite reportedly being made for only around $750,000. In today’s entertainment landscape, those kinds of numbers are exactly why horror studios continue to thrive while other genres keep struggling to justify bloated budgets.
From a talented young newcomer Curry Barker, Obsession stars Inde Navarrette in the lead role alongside Michael B. Jordan and Olivia Colman.
The film follows Bear, a music store employee who buys a supernatural toy that grants him his wish for his childhood friend Nikki to fall in love with him, resulting in horrifying consequences.
The film had already been generating buzz online well before its release, especially among younger horror audiences who seem to crave unsettling stories that blend realism with psychological discomfort rather than relying entirely on jump scares and CGI spectacle. This one had a whole bunch of those awkward social moments..
What makes Obsession interesting is that it starts off almost deceptively normal at times. There are moments where the audience can laugh or settle into the characters, but then the movie shifts. And once it shifts, it becomes deeply uncomfortable in a way that lingers afterward.
This movie blended overall lessons of the occult.. sexual abuse.. a lack of moral fortitude among our characters.. and an unsettling thought that we are presented with a villainous woman who really was not the villain at all, and we realize that near the end when we root for who would have been the ‘evil’ person..
The characters had hedonistic qualities and their likability diminished quickly. The most amazing of people in the movie succumbed to cruel and dreadful fate just for being wholesome .. the curse did injustice to the moral..
One particular scene completely changed the atmosphere of the theater and took the movie from entertaining to genuinely disturbing. It became shockingly violent..
And yet no one called 911!?
That’s where the film worked best.
It stopped trying to simply entertain and instead made the audience feel trapped inside the situation unfolding onscreen.
We also loved the honorary mention of the Mandela Effect in the film!
That’s something horror continues to do better than almost any other genre right now.
Horror does not need a billion-dollar budget, endless CGI armies, or giant established franchises to succeed.
It only needs atmosphere, tension, creativity, and a filmmaker who understands how to get under the skin of the audience.
Younger directors especially seem to understand this shift in audience taste. Instead of trying to recreate the past exactly, they’re building horror around modern anxieties, awkwardness, dread, and realism.
In the end, Obsession may not become the biggest film of the year, but it really doesn’t need to.
Financially it already appears to be a success, and creatively it shows once again why horror remains one of the safest bets in entertainment.
While other genres continue chasing massive budgets and struggling to break even, horror keeps quietly walking into theaters, unsettling audiences, and walking away with profit.
We saw Obsession so you don’t have to.. but you really will want to.
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.
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.
As this is written, I just got back from a sunny beautiful New York City, center of the universe.
A Saturday night with busy crowds and life abounding, and we sat in a Broadway theater enjoying Stranger Things: The First Shadow. Not sure where people reading this are from or how far a quest to New York City would be for you but should you happen to have the spare jingle and time it would serve your needs if you’re a Stranger Things fan to see this.
From the moment the play opens it blows you away. You’re told by staff to silence your phones and you’ll be admonished if you’re not doing that, but because of the intensity and immediacy of the action you don’t even think about recording it.
A lot of people have given a lot of five star reviews and influential publications have said that they were blown away by this live performance of The First Shadow.
The group I saw with and the audience I saw it with clearly were blown away. A couple of kids who were perhaps a bit too young were taken from the audience because of the intensity of some scenes but everybody else respectfully laughed when they should have, jumped when they didn’t know what was coming, and cheered in an enormous round of applause for the actors in this play. You probably already know a bit about The First Shadow.
The play serves as a prequel to the Netflix series and takes audiences back to Hawkins in 1959, long before the events of the television show.
The production first premiered in London’s West End before making its way to Broadway where it has quickly become one of the most talked about live theatrical experiences in recent memory. Critics and fans have praised the production for somehow capturing the cinematic scale of Stranger Things while still feeling like live theater, with many reviews singling out the visual effects, sound design, performances, and shocking stage illusions as something audiences have rarely seen before in a Broadway production.
Perhaps what was the most amazing of all was the first few minutes. I’m only going to spoil it in this way, when the play opens up it’s immediate action. We’re thrown back into the teenage years of our favorite adult cast from the Stranger Things Netflix series. Isabella Pappas as Joyce is spot on and she and Louis McCartney as Henry Creel steal the show. And once that opening sequence, a very loud opening sequence mind you, happens we immediately are immersed into the opening song with the stage showing the famous Stranger Things logo appearing just like it did on the Netflix show. It suddenly feels like we’re not watching a play but instead we are in the actual world of Stranger Things itself.
Going to Broadway or theater or plays will do that but the action, the animatronics, the screens, and the set design and tricks played by this show’s staff morphs you into a silent observer in the world of The First Shadow. It feels like you’re there with Henry Creel as he discovers his powers and evil takes itself over. The only other thing I’ll sort of ruin for you is not the ending of the play itself because again, you may have already ruined that for yourself and read about it, but expect to be in awe of a very famous character making an appearance at the extreme end. And what I really loved about it is as we see the post show song play on the screen in front of us on the stage appears that famous little Netflix clickable item of either watching the credits or clicking on the next episode. It gave our audience a laugh while we cheered and instead of the next show playing since the play was over we watched the credits as the cast and crew came out to a roaring lengthy ovation.
I will say the play seemed flawless. Of course there’s errors that the random viewer may or may not really pick up on but that’s fine, they perfect them as they continue doing plays. But for the audience that saw it today we were in awe and I could have sat through three more hours. Watching this play actually gives you a certain sense of sadness about how season 5 actually was. So many things from the youth of our adults get referenced but not expanded on during season 5. And perhaps it’s just because there was not enough time and the congruity of everything working together doesn’t really flow but, if you have the abilities and means to get there it’s highly advisable that you see The First Shadow on Broadway.
The cast broke a leg and with Henry Creel in action, many many legs..
Some big announcements for streaming came today. We were a bit shocked that the Paper is getting season 2 but not shocking is the Peacock show Crystal lake. October 15th except for it’s debut…
The new Friday the 13th prequel series, hailing from A24 and set to stream on Peacock, stars Callum Vinson a young Jason Voorhees and Linda Cardellini as murder mommy Pamela Voorhees. The show is set prior to the accident that made Voorhees the killer..
Joining Vinson and Cardellini are William Catlett, Devin Kessler, Cameron Scoggins in a major role, Gwendolyn Sundstrom, Nick Cordileone, Danielle Kotch, Phoenix Parnevik, Nancy Nagrant, and Joy Suprano, with Michael Lennox, Celine Held and Logan George, and Quyen Tran directing episodes.
