A24’s ‘Backrooms’ Movie Is Poised To Turn Viral Horror Into Box Office Gold

2 days ago 7

Published May 28, 2026, 11:48 AM EDT

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A24 loves a weird film. Backrooms is a weird story. It's a dream combo, so obviously, the biggest indie studio of them all decides that this is the kind of twisted mental cataclysm we want people to see and funds a movie version. And the best thing is, it looks like a gamble that's about to pay off massively. Yes, a nightmarish YouTube series is heading to the big screen and the box office tracking is hinting that it's, from nowhere, about to become the year's most terrifying sensation.

According to reports, Backrooms looks set to open at anywhere between $40 million and $50 million this weekend domestically and, if it hits that marker, it'll easily become A24’s biggest opening weekend ever, passing Civil War, which debuted to $25.5 million. That's an absolutely staggering result for any normal horror movie, but it's even better because Backrooms reportedly carries a production budget of just $10 million so if the projections hold, the film could become an unprecedented W for A24, producer James Wan, and Kane Parsons, who is making his feature directorial debut after building the property on YouTube.

The cast includes Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave) as Clark, Renate Reinsve (The Worst Person in the World as Dr. Mary Kline, Mark Duplass (Safety Not Guaranteed), Finn Bennett (True Detective: Night Country) as Bobby, Lukita Maxwell (Generation) as Kat, and Avan Jogia (Zombieland: Double Tap). The film is written by Will Soodik, with James Wan, Shawn Levy, Osgood Perkins, and Peter Chernin among the producers.