Backrooms, the A24 horror film directed by 20-year-old YouTube creator Kane Parsons, has crossed $100 million at the domestic box office, becoming the studio’s highest-grossing film in its history in the United States, achieving the milestone in just six days.
The film opened to $81 million domestically and $118 million worldwide on its debut weekend, as reported by Deadline, tripling A24’s previous opening-weekend record set by Alex Garland’s Civil War in 2024.
It is currently the number one film globally and is still showing at Ster-Kinekor, Nu Metro and Empire Entertainment cinemas in South Africa, where it opened on Friday, 29 May 2026.
The ‘Backrooms’ box office record and what it means for A24
A24 has long been celebrated as the independent studio behind prestige horror and awards fare, but no film in its catalogue has ever crossed $100 million at the domestic box office before this.
Backrooms has not only broken that barrier but done it faster than any film in the studio’s history, surpassing the previous domestic champion Marty Supreme, the Timothée Chalamet period film that topped out at $96 million.
With a worldwide gross already north of $136 million, Backrooms is also closing in on the studio’s all-time global record holder, Everything Everywhere All at Once, which earned $148 million worldwide.
At its current pace, industry observers expect it to overtake that total within days.
Kane Parsons: the youngest director with a number one film
Parsons, 20, built his audience on YouTube through a web series about liminal spaces, the unsettling internet phenomenon of seemingly endless, empty rooms.
That series became the source material for the film, which he wrote and directed under A24. By landing at number one in his debut week, he became the youngest filmmaker ever to achieve that feat, beating the benchmark held by Josh Trank, who was 27 when Chronicle opened at number one in 2012.
The film stars Chiwetel Ejiofor as a furniture store owner who discovers a hidden doorway leading to an endless stretch of nondescript rooms.
When he disappears, his therapist, played by Renate Reinsve, ventures into the unknown to find him. The pairing has drawn strong critical notices, with Ejiofor’s performance described as anchoring a film that could easily have collapsed under the weight of its premise.
What happens next for ‘Backrooms’
With Game 3 of the NBA Finals taking attention in the coming days and the FIFA World Cup opening on 11 June 2026, Backrooms faces stiffer competition for headlines and cinema footfall in the weeks ahead.
A24 has not announced any marketing push tied to the $100 million milestone. Whether a streaming release window has been set has not been confirmed at the time of publishing.
Parsons has not spoken publicly about a follow-up project.
