By Janet H. Cho
Gen Z moviegoers are giving Hollywood's mainstream studios something to think about as two recent horror movies directed by viral YouTube sensations outperform big-budget franchise films at the box office.
Movie industry watchers say their box office success shows that audiences are hungry for imaginative, unpredictable storytelling from fresh faces, rather than the sequels and retreads that the big studios have been rolling out more recently.
Obsession, a dark thriller about a socially awkward hopeless romantic setting out to win his crush's heart, has sold more than $156.1 million in domestic ticket sales and over $229.4 million worldwide over the past four weekends. It was distributed by Focus Features.
And A24's Backrooms, about a therapy patient who disappears into a dimension beyond reality, has grossed more than $138.7 million in domestic box office over its first two weekends. Its global box office take has surpassed $216.3 million.
Not only were both movies made for a fraction of what bigger studios usually spend, but they were both produced by Jason Blum's Blumhouse in partnership with James Wan's Atomic Monster, and directed by Gen Z directors better known for their YouTube creations.
Together, the two films have generated more than $287.3 million, or about one-fifth of the $1.346 billion in summer domestic box office sales since May 1. The total is up 13.5% from last summer.
In comparison, Paramount Pictures' sixth Scary Movie sold $55 million in its debut this past weekend. In second place was Amazon MGM's Masters of the Universe, "with an unspectacular $29 million," considering its $170 million reported budget, wrote Eric Handler, senior media and entertainment analyst for Roth.
For Hollywood, domestic box office ticket sales through June 7 are at nearly $4 billion, including more than $1 billion in ticket sales in May, the best showing for the month since the Covid-19 pandemic, says Rentrak's head of marketplace trends Paul Dergarabedian.
"Modestly budgeted, cost-effective horror films such as Talk To Me, Iron Lung, Obsession, and now the psychological horror/thriller Backrooms are proving that original and innovative films can indeed have mass appeal," Dergarabedian told Barron's. Film distributors like A24, Neon, Focus Features, and others are increasingly offering their distribution and marketing expertise to independent filmmakers.
Kane Parsons, the 20-year-old who directed and co-wrote Backrooms, scored arguably the biggest over-performance ever recorded and became the youngest director ever to have a film debut at No. 1, Dergarabedian added.
Backrooms opened the last weekend of May with a monstrous $81.4 million debut, taking in a per-theatre average of $23,665, according to Rentrak. And even though ticket sales dropped to $26.2 million this past weekend, "at a budget level of around $10 million, it's already a runaway smash hit with over $212 million globally so far," Dergarabedian said.
Just as impressive is Obsession's unprecedented uptick in box office, from its $17.2 million opening weekend to $25.6 million in its fourth weekend, bringing its domestic gross to more than $156 million, which Dergarabedian said is setting a new bar for long-term theatrical playability.
Obsession's director Curry Barker is only 26 and reportedly made the film for an estimated $750,000.
The internet and social media platforms like YouTube and TikTok are enabling aspiring filmmakers to create on smaller screens and cultivate audiences "without having to suffer through the normal vetting process and gatekeepers" that might have discouraged their predecessors, said Deepak Sarma, the Inaugural Distinguished Scholar in the Public Humanities at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.
Sarma noted that both movies were based on viral internet series, proving that filmmakers "don't need the blessing of some media entrepreneurs" who might not share their visions of what viewers want to see.
Sarma said horror films may resonate more with younger audiences who grew up with violent videogames, active-shooter drills, and incendiary political rhetoric, in a way they just don't with older moviegoers. The horror film genre generated a record $1.43 billion in domestic box office last year, including $280 million from Warner Bros.' Sinners, according to Rentrak.
Backrooms' audiences were 57% male, and 64% ages 35 and under, while Obsession's audiences were 52% male, and 55% ages 35 and under, according to EntTelligence. "Definitely a Gen Z play for those films," Chief Strategy Officer Steve Buck said.
Stephen Galloway, dean of the Dodge College of Film and Media Arts at Chapman University in Orange, Calif., and former executive editor of The Hollywood Reporter, said that the major corporations that view moviemaking in terms of their moneymaking potential have become less interested in high-risk projects. Instead, they have been making films that "feel very tired," relying on formulaic sequels like "Avengers 98 or Rocky 63," using computer-generated imagery, or starring superheroes.
"They're not interested in making movies that make $100 million, they want movies that make $1 billion," including by appealing to movie-lovers worldwide, he said.
At the same time, the fact that consumers have large screens at home and access to streaming services makes the bar higher for movies that can pull people off their couches and into the movie theater, Galloway said.
What's happening with the two low-budget horror films "may be the first sally in a major change," he said. Their ticket sales show that audiences will support films that feel fresh and different, and their continued box office totals in subsequent weeks, especially among audiences 25 and under, is "really amazing and significant."
Dergarabedian said that even though production companies' talent scouts are combing YouTube for new talent, "the real key is whether or not this is an anomaly or if it will become a trend. I think because we had Iron Lung this year doing so well, and then these two films back to back that had everyone thinking, 'Well this is the new paradigm,' replicating this kind of success may not be so easy."
Dergarabedian notes that Curry Barker, the director of Obsession, and Kane Parsons, the director of Backrooms, have been on YouTube for years, so they weren't overnight sensations. "They just seemed like overnight sensations to those of us who were uninitiated," he said. "I think they just caught this groundswell of the Zeitgeist with younger viewers who love horror movies."
That doesn't mean that Hollywood is going to abandon its model of releasing big budget movies. Still on tap in coming weeks are Universal's Steven Spielberg-directed Disclosure Day, opening Friday; Walt Disney's Toy Story 5, opening June 19; Warner Bros.' Supergirl, opening June 26; and Universal's Minions & Monsters, opening July 1.
Adam Aron, CEO of the AMC Entertainment movie theater company, recently said on social media that AMC saw its highest-first day advance ticket sales for any studio-released movie title since 2022 for Christopher Nolan's much awaited The Odyssey, which opens July 17.
An AMC spokesperson declined to share details about how many tickets were sold, but Aron said AMC has "MILLIONS more available seats for you to catch what is sure to be a global phenomenon."
Write to Janet H. Cho at janet.cho@dowjones.com
This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 10, 2026 13:18 ET (17:18 GMT)
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