The Backrooms, Kane Parsons' feature adaptation of his viral YouTube horror series, pulled in a staggering $10.4 million in Thursday night previews, obliterating A24's previous record and proving that the internet-to-cinema pipeline is very, very real.
Let me repeat that: $10.4 million. For previews. For a movie based on a creepypasta about endless yellow hallways.
A24's previous preview record was Hereditary with $1.3 million. The Backrooms didn't just beat it—it demolished it. This is the kind of number that makes studio executives simultaneously salivate and panic, because they have absolutely no idea how to replicate it.
Here's what makes this story remarkable: Kane Parsons is 23 years old. Three years ago, he was uploading grainy found-footage videos to YouTube. His first Backrooms video—9 minutes of unsettling liminal space horror—went viral, racking up millions of views. Now he's directing a major theatrical release that's on track for a massive opening weekend.
The Backrooms phenomenon is fascinating because it's entirely open-source horror. The original concept—an infinite maze of musty office spaces where you can "noclip" out of reality—emerged from a 4chan post. Thousands of creators added to the mythology. Parsons was just one of them, but his aesthetic vision (analog horror meets existential dread) became definitive.
A24 didn't invent this trend. Earlier this year, Obsession—another YouTube-to-feature adaptation—shocked the industry by opening to $47 million. These aren't flukes. They're a pattern.
Traditional studios are scrambling to understand what's happening. How do you market to an audience that discovered your movie through TikTok fan edits? How do you build hype when the IP is collectively owned and constantly evolving? You can't buy this kind of grassroots fervor—it has to be earned.
Parsons told Variety he was terrified A24 would "butcher" his vision with studio interference. Instead, they gave him creative freedom and a reported $15 million budget—low by Hollywood standards, massive for a first-time director.
The film expands on his YouTube mythology, exploring the original discovery of the Backrooms and what happens to people trapped inside. Early reactions suggest it's genuinely unsettling—slow-burn psychological horror rather than jump scares. Think Skinamarink meets House of Leaves.
What's hilarious is watching legacy media try to explain this to general audiences. "The Backrooms is based on an internet meme..." No. It's based on collective digital folklore. It's based on the same primal fear that made us tell campfire stories about monsters in the woods, except now the woods are liminal spaces and fluorescent lighting.
Horror has always thrived on the margins. A24 understood this early—The Witch, Hereditary, Midsommar—but The Backrooms takes it further. This is Gen Z horror, made by Gen Z, for Gen Z. And it's working.
The traditional path was: go to film school, make shorts, maybe get into Sundance, hope someone notices you. Kane Parsons posted a video on YouTube and got a theatrical release three years later. He's not an outlier anymore—he's a blueprint.
In Hollywood, nobody knows anything—except that the kids making weird stuff on the internet might be the future of cinema. And honestly? That's the most exciting thing to happen to movies in years.
