Stop scrolling. A movie about empty yellow hallways just became the most successful original release A24 has ever put out, and the director isn't old enough to legally rent a car in some states. We need to talk about it. Loudly.

Here's every record "Backrooms" obliterated on its way to the top, ranked from "impressive" to "are you KIDDING me."

Ranked: Every Record

The records, ranked

  1. $10.4M in previews. A record haul before the movie even officially opened. The liminal-space hive showed up in force.
  2. $81.4M domestic opening. An eye-watering number for ANY horror film, let alone one with no IP attached to a studio franchise.
  3. $118M worldwide opening. A24's biggest opening weekend ever. Full stop. The arthouse darling just went blockbuster.
  4. Biggest original-horror opening in history. Not biggest A24 horror. Not biggest indie horror. The biggest opening for an ORIGINAL horror film, period. No sequel, no remake, no built-in fanbase except the internet.
  5. $200M+ and counting = A24's #1 movie EVER. It blew past everything in the A24 catalog. The studio that gave you "Hereditary" and "Midsommar" now has a new king, and it's a creepypasta.

Wait, how did we get here?

If you've spent any time on the internet in the last few years, you've seen the Backrooms: that endless, fluorescent-lit nightmare of damp carpet and humming lights you "no-clip" into. The whole thing exploded as a viral liminal-space series on YouTube, masterminded by Kane Parsons — who started the project as a teenager.

Now Parsons is 20, and his feature debut just outgrossed films from directors three times his age. Let that marinate.

Ranked: Every Record

Why your feed can't shut up about it

  • It's PROOF that internet-born horror can dominate the box office without a single recognizable franchise logo.
  • It validated A24's biggest swing yet — betting on a YouTube phenomenon and a first-time director.
  • It made "original horror is dead" the most embarrassing take of the year.

The takeaway? The scariest thing in horror right now isn't a ghost or a slasher. It's a 20-year-old with a render farm and 100 million people who already know exactly what room he's talking about. The Backrooms got out. And it brought receipts.