The two biggest movies this weekend were directed by YouTubers

The horror pipeline from YouTube to prestige looks pretty strong this weekend.

Backrooms, a feature film sequel, took first place at the box office Ken Parsons YouTube series Featuring eerie found footage of a mysterious office space (taken from 4chan thread) which defies physics.

“Backrooms,” directed by Parsons, grossed $38 million on Friday, and is expected to do so. It brought in a total of $80 million to $90 million at the domestic box office this weekend alone. For independent studio A24, this is its biggest opening ever – the previous record was held by “Civil War,” which grossed $25.7 in its first weekend of release.

The second film, “Obsession,” offers something that is arguably even more impressive. True, it made just $8 million on Friday, with an estimated $28.5 million in weekend revenue — but the movie (about a romantic wish gone nightmarishly wrong) actually made more money in its second weekend than its first, and now its third weekend is set to grow another 19 percent.

For context, most wide release films typically drop between 50 to 70 percent in their second weekend; “Sinners” was considered last year An extraordinary word-of-mouth success Because it fell less than 5 percent. With the exception of Christmas releases (which have more staying power, thanks to the holidays), weekend-to-weekend growth is unheard of – According to The Hollywood Reporter“Mania” is the first film since 1982 to grow in its second and third weekends.

Like “Backrooms,” “Obsession” is a horror film from the director who first made his name on YouTube – Carrie Parkerwho was released An hour’s worth of found footage from the horror film ‘Milk & Serial’ on YouTube in 2024. Parker has already filmed his next film and is set to direct a remake of “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.”

Two versions follow The surprising success of the movie “Iron Lung” A video game that was released earlier this year. Directed by Mark Fischbach — known by his YouTube handle Markiplier — “Iron Lung” has grossed nearly $41 million domestically.

in New York Times article About “the recent YouTube-to-filmmaker boom,” Rutgers CInema Managing Director Mark Delvecchio noted that “a lot of YouTubers have tried to make the leap into mainstream films and come up with a short.” What’s so special about Parsons, Parker and Fishbach? Despite their youth (Parsons is 20, Parker is 26), they all have “longevity,” Delvecchio said.

“At this point, some of them have been making videos for a very long time, and that’s how you develop a loyal audience that will follow you,” he added.

By the way, although I haven’t watched “Back Rooms” yet (expect tomorrow), I am He owns I saw “Obsession”. So I can confirm that it doesn’t disappoint at all – I watched most of the second half with my fingers over my eyes, and probably screamed a few times.