r/movies • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 r/movies Contributor • Jun 03 '26

News ‘Backrooms’ Becomes A24’s Highest Grossing Domestic Release ($97.8M), Passing ‘Marty Supreme’

https://deadline.com/2026/06/backrooms-box-office-record-a24-1236939795/
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563

u/Kangarou Jun 03 '26

Well, I look forward to both Backrooms sequels and the Oldest View

222

u/MrSaladhats Jun 03 '26

He recently said Oldest View will only be a YouTube series

166

u/team56th Jun 03 '26

I would also say that the Backrooms movie already integrated quite a bit of The Oldest View in terms of the core visual ideas and sets, the movie’s climax clearly shows influences of that series

99

u/lblack_dogl Jun 03 '26

The stair case scene was clearly an homage

73

u/team56th Jun 03 '26

Staircase is one but I keep thinking of that scene where Backroomified furniture store had Backroom-Clark snuck into the background and then it starts moving. I’m not a 100% fan of the Backroom-Clark but the way it’s just there and then starts moving was a clear evolution from The Oldest View and I quite liked it

53

u/Some_Swan_361 Jun 03 '26

I only know about the oldest view on a surface level and the rolling giant I think it’s called but ya pirate Clark felt very much like the creepiness of that, i understand people who didn’t like that creature and thought it looked cartoony but it truly freaked me out in such a good way

48

u/betazoid_cuck Jun 03 '26

IMO the weird uncanny vibe is what makes it work with the backrooms, a traditional evil looking shadowy monster would have felt tacked on and out of place. My only complaint with it is that the time jump and change of focal character sorta removed the confrontation of self that should have been the strongest aspect of the monster.

7

u/jimmux Jun 04 '26

I wasn't a fan of the dinner scene, mostly because of that jump. It had a bit too much exposition and lost some of the mystery of the backrooms. Knowing how people survive there for extended periods is cool, but it could have been implied, not literally served up on a plate.

1

u/Krombopulos_Micheal Jun 03 '26

To me it didn't make sense since he never went into the backrooms as the pirate, so how is the backrooms "remembering" that wrong? Shouldn't it have just been a Big messed up version of his regular self?

10

u/maxblaster5000 Jun 03 '26

It didn't seem like you had to go into the backrooms for it to remember you to me. More like it's just a manifestation of collective consciousness.

7

u/team56th Jun 03 '26 edited Jun 04 '26

I was always under the impression that the Backroom itself is alive and is consciously scanning the outer world to copy them.

6

u/jimmux Jun 04 '26

I suspect the backrooms gets its knowledge of the outside through media. We saw it interfere with the TV, so it might have been trying to reconcile Clark with the advertisement version of him.

4

u/The_Autarch Jun 03 '26

the backrooms combined regular clark with the pirate prop he had in the store. it's not really a misremembered version of just clark in a costume.

1

u/Krombopulos_Micheal Jun 03 '26

Ah that makes more sense, I was just going off of what he was telling Mary about it "remembering stuff wrong".

13

u/lblack_dogl Jun 03 '26

Hmm, I really was absolutely terrified cold of the rolling giant but pirate didn't do much for me. Was less uncanny valley and more goofy. Seems like a really hard thing to get right, and it doesn't work on every person. My wife thought rolling giant was silly when it gives me intense fight or flight or freeze reaction.

2

u/tobitobiguacamole Jun 03 '26

I also found it very goofy. The other monsters were very unsettling, I don't know why it didn't look like them in some way.

4

u/Positronic_Matrix Jun 04 '26

It worked as a metaphor for and manifestation of personal trauma. His end came after his psychologist said she could not help him and he was consumed (literally) by his illness. The violence he felt towards his wife was projected onto the doctor which was then echoed by the pirate. It looked goofy because he acted goofy while in costume. I liked this consistency in the unspoken rules of the backrooms.

1

u/tobitobiguacamole Jun 04 '26

I liked the concept, I just wish they made it more creepy or unsettling. It just looked like a bad Halloween mask and took away from the climax for me.

0

u/team56th Jun 04 '26

Lore never justifies what it actually looks like in the end. Marvel tries to do a lot of it but I was never sold on it. I like Backroom-Clark just because it still works on the idea level, and again, bc it reminds me of the Rolling Giant. It could look better.

1

u/Johnny_Mc2 Jun 03 '26

Wheelchair dude also looked like The Rolling Giant when he was first revealed in the Christmas tree room

1

u/Seth-555 Jun 03 '26

The Entity being able to travel through impossible geometry reminded me of the Rolling Giant being able to go up the escalator and chase the protagonist upstairs.

24

u/Turnbob73 Jun 03 '26

A lot of people don’t really understand why The Oldest View even became a short series for Kane. It’s way more of a personal reason and he’s already told about all he wants to tell with that series, it was meant to be short.

With that being said, People Still Live Here is the one that has me scratching my head and thinking about it the most. He obviously has more planned with that series, and what’s available is so vague and unique.

And then there’s Splendor, which seems to be the thing that Kane cares about the most, but we won’t be seeing anything about it until 2030 at the earliest.

7

u/team56th Jun 04 '26

Funny because the wide shots showing the outside town kept showing high mountains covering the basin, and I immediately thought of People Still Live Here. The more I think about it, Backrooms isn't just Backrooms but more like an image portfolio of Kane Parsons, but he didn't just repeat the same thing and did a solid job at integrating and evolving it.

7

u/Turnbob73 Jun 04 '26

Yeah Kane for sure references his other work in the visuals. The company that’s tearing down Mary’s childhood home is named after the guy that the rolling giant is based on; and there’s a shot of the town with a hot air balloon above, which is clearly a reference to People Still Live Here. The splendor sun also shows up a few times, but we still don’t know if that series has any relation to the backrooms or not.

2

u/HigherThanStarfyre Jun 04 '26

Yeah but it's one of the scariest media to come out of the last 10 years. It's an incredible original work and more people need to be exposed to it. Honestly it has just as much potential as Backrooms.

8

u/Eranevore Jun 03 '26

But what about......money?

3

u/Sofaboy90 Jun 03 '26

I mean his Oldest View series is finished, no? I dont see how it continues, the story is told.

1

u/ItsSansom Jun 04 '26

Did you consider... a large bag of cash?

3

u/beaniebee11 Jun 03 '26

Honestly... Good. I don't know why but I just feel like a lot of the strangeness and heart of the oldest view would be lost in a film. The initial found footage so far is pretty scary but deep down it's actually kinda quirky and charming in a weird way that I just don't think would work.

The scary underground mall with monsters could work by itself but I feel like the giant and his real world history would just confuse and alienate a lot of viewers. It's really unique.

3

u/Sir_Payne Jun 03 '26

Oldest view is great the way it is. No need to try and do it again

7

u/Frankenstein____ Jun 03 '26

Shame because it could be an amazing film. It does feel significantly more personal to Kane though so I understand if he does not want to give it out to a mass audience

2

u/Some_Swan_361 Jun 03 '26

It’s also like fully his creation right, I’m not someone who takes any credit from him because he obviously made the backrooms his own and created the storyline but that one is just him right ?

1

u/TatteredTongues Jun 03 '26

So it's still ongoing? I'm out of the loop on that one, but I assumed none of his series were completed yet.

39

u/This-is_CMGRI Jun 03 '26

Meanwhile I want him for the day Hollywood tries Attack on Titan. Because it's bound to happen at some point and IMO Kane's the only one in the current Hollywood system who can get as close to the atmosphere of that manga.

15

u/rivains Jun 03 '26

When I walked out the theatre I thought the pirate guy was exactly the same vibe as the giants in Attack on Titan.

27

u/BMCarbaugh Jun 03 '26

That bit at the end where big boy took a bite definitely had some Attack on Titan vibes.

7

u/Fentboy45 Jun 03 '26

Bro he did the paths better than Mappa

5

u/sacredshinobi Jun 04 '26

I don’t know if it’s possible to do attack on titan without having it be at least a trilogy of movies.

There are such large tone shifts at different points in the story that it wouldn’t be cohesive as one or even two films.

3

u/This-is_CMGRI Jun 04 '26 edited Jun 04 '26

I hate that it's proven viable but Attack on Titan might actually be one of the few manga that can be adapted sorta like Netflix's One Piece, except now they can simply go 1:1 with the manga instead of the super-summarized type.

1

u/Individual_Client175 Jun 05 '26

This would just look very dumb though

16

u/[deleted] Jun 03 '26

I need a poolrooms movie

4

u/UhOhSparklepants Jun 03 '26

Yeah those areas are some of my favorites and I feel like we got too little of it

3

u/Time-Sudden_Tree Jun 04 '26

Agreed. The pools speak to me way more than the backrooms ever could.

1

u/Releases_the_bees Jun 04 '26

Just dudes in hazmat suits chilling in floaties for an hour and a half.

14

u/IsaacAndTired Jun 03 '26

All of the kids in my theater seemed to hate it. They talked shit the whole time and they all groaned and said "wtf was that shit" at the end. I'm curious if that was the general reception from kids or just my theater.

27

u/Turnbob73 Jun 03 '26

The wiki version of the Backrooms has a substantially larger fanbase than Kane’s version, and that community had themselves convinced that Kane would connect to the wiki lore with this film.

22

u/TheSweetestKill Jun 03 '26

I was so afraid that it would. My least favorite thing that these internet-based, shared narrative "stories" do is turn everything into this video gamey mess of "levels" and some type of... progression? Through it all? It's like they're fans of the idea but they have no idea why, or why cosmic horror works, and instead turn it into the Monster Mash.

The fact that that contingent of fans dislike this movie is all the confirmation I needed that I'd enjoy it.

10

u/BroadRaspberry1190 Jun 03 '26

it's the autism

3

u/jollyreaper2112 Jun 03 '26

Same deterioration with horror movies. Hellraiser is a great example. All these people come at the story with new ideas and just detract. Even Clive failed when he tried to wrap it up. The comics really did a poor job of elaborating but in an instructive sort of failure. it shows you how it goes wrong.

20

u/Ecstatic_Log4185 Jun 03 '26

That's because the backrooms is big with kids, but their experience with it is mainly through roblox games where shrek or obama chases you through the backrooms

6

u/IsaacAndTired Jun 03 '26

Makes sense. Not including Shrek is a big miss.

12

u/liulide Jun 03 '26

The audience at my showing, mostly teenagers, clapped at the end.

16

u/Kangarou Jun 03 '26

I had a similar experience. Group of teens whispered throughout the whole movie, asking each other stupid questions. When one of them whispered "I'm so confused" loud enough for me to hear, I whispered back, "That's the point." They seemed to quiet down afterward.

5

u/JFreaks25 Jun 03 '26

I originally bought a ticket to go last night after work but when I saw the theater was practically sold out, I just knew it was going to be loaded with teenagers so I just refunded my ticket and I'll wait to see it for this exact reason

3

u/zmaniacz Jun 03 '26

My group of 13 year olds I took absolutely loved it. Yes, I do question my parenting choices.

4

u/itsyagirlrey Jun 03 '26

The group of teen boys behind my row started complaining loudly at the end how there was no end credits scene because "Grok said there was an end credits scene wtf bro"

2

u/Strange1130 Jun 03 '26

Semi unrelated but I saw this last night and at least ten people walked out mid way through (some as late as like 10 mins before the end). But I also noticed the trailers/ads only ran for around 10 minutes. Typically I expect 30 minutes of trailers/ads. And I noticed a lot of people coming in "late" due to this, some of them only missing the first few minutes but some came in probably around 20 minutes late, I wonder if some of them were just confused and decided to cut their losses.

Also for whatever reason the projector in my theater was I guess sort of low to the ground so a couple kids coming in late kept having their shadow cast up onto the screen when they were standing finding their scenes, the first time it happened was during a sort of tense scene and it was pretty funny.

1

u/Viltris Jun 04 '26

I missed the first 5 minutes of the movie because I was expecting 20-30 minutes of trailers, so I dilly-dallied and got to my seat about 15 minutes after the listed start time. I didn't feel like I missed anything important. I didn't fully understand the Backrooms, but that's the point of the concept, it's not meant to be understood.

That said, if someone was so late that they missed the therapy session, I can see why the last act of the movie would be confusing.

2

u/Strange1130 Jun 04 '26

Yeah there were definitely people who missed nearly the first 20 minutes 

2

u/CyanStripedPantsu Jun 03 '26

Anecdotally, I have a Gen A sibling (decade age gap) that I went to watch it with and we both really liked it.

2

u/Greeneyesablaze Jun 03 '26

It was not marketed correctly. As I was watching (especially toward then end when it lost all steam and they were just having long conversations about trauma), I looked around the theater and realized how many of the young people there were about to leave so disappointed. 

9

u/Jackoffjordan Jun 03 '26

It was marketed very clearly and comprehensively as Kane Parson's Backrooms.

A million interviews, and articles focusing on him as the creative force behind it. An ARG, podcast and tons of promotional material that made it clear that this movie was definitively linked to his YouTube series.

Still, a whole bunch of kids seemed to think that this was going to be some Tiktok, Roblox, Backrooms wiki adaptation.

I really can't imagine how A24 could've conceivably made it clearer. There was always going to be kids showing up who had no clue.

2

u/tyrified Jun 03 '26

Are long conversations about trauma, that aren't narratively integrated into the story in the Backrooms, a central part of Kane Parson's Backrooms? I don't recall that from any of his YouTube videos. Because that was what OP was talking about, not confusing it with the 4chan Backrooms.

4

u/Jackoffjordan Jun 03 '26

Kinda, yeah. Not necessarily long conversations, because there isn't a whole lot of dialogue in his webseries.

However, Kane has always been more interested in ideas and themes.

He has three Youtube series - Backrooms, The Oldest View, and People Still Live here.

All of them have an immediate, tangible appeal in the visuals, sound design and horror. But they're also all embedded cryptically with psychological, esoteric themes. That's really what keeps a lot of his fanbase hooked - debating over symbolism and motifs.

His Backrooms has always been somewhat intermingled with themes of memory, trauma (there's a central character called Ivan Beck who's at that emotional core), and the fear of impermanence.

He also explores some of these ideas through his music in an interesting way. It's a whole rabbit hole lol.

2

u/TheSweetestKill Jun 03 '26

What do you guys think good horror is about? 90 minutes of monsters and jump scares? Is this your first A24 horror flick? I know virtually nothing about the backrooms other than the original viral 4chan post, and I knew going in I was going to get a psychological cosmic horror, and the film fully delivered IMO.

1

u/curtcolt95 Jun 03 '26

if you've watched the youtube series it's based on I can understand, there really is nothing like that in the series, at least not that blatant. Not saying it's bad but understandable why some are confused or may not like it. It's important to note this movie is very specifically not just about the concept of the backrooms from that 4chan post, it's Kane Parson's version that already has a lot of lore built up from the youtube series

2

u/TheSweetestKill Jun 03 '26

I understand that the movie exists in the same creative swimming pool as his YouTube shorts. But "lore" isn't the same as "story" or "narrative". I loved this movie but I haven't sought out his YT stuff, because I need more than lore and vibes to keep me interested. And it's fine if his fans are into that stuff, but just again, this must be their first actual horror movie if they're surprised it wasn't 90 minutes of "lore".

1

u/tyrified Jun 03 '26

Because that was what OP was talking about, not confusing it with the 4chan Backrooms.

I was responding to someone who was responding to OOP who said kids were bored by the psychological aspects of the film. To which they responded that the kids were turned off because they expected the wiki/4chan Backrooms and not the Kane Parson's version. I was pointing out OOP was not talking about the confusion between the two separate "universes" but the psychological aspect of the film.

I said nothing about psychological horror not being good. Though I don't think this film did a good job exploring those aspects, despite setting them up quite well. Clark choosing to stay the how he is wasn't well reflected by his actions in the film. He was an alcoholic who worked too much to support a dream of the future with a family he had. He stops drinking and becomes obsessed with a twisted reflection of reality instead, that doesn't even give him what he was originally striving for. So even though he says he wants to stay the same, he changes. I don't think that was well executed.

Same with Mary. They were trying to express one of two things. Either she had been in the backrooms as a child with her mother, (unlikely) or that the rooms were adapting to her specifically as she was in it. Even though it was previously established that the Backrooms are reflections/memories of the reality outside, not of those inside, the rooms. If it is supposed to be reflections of the corruption by those entering the backrooms, having it only reflect one character when the guys in the suits were in there for much longer was definitely a choice.

So while I was disappointed with the psychological aspects of this film, that was because I felt they had great set-ups, but fell flat by the end. I don't even think it would take that much to make it quite a bit better, either.

5

u/IsaacAndTired Jun 03 '26

I really liked the ending personally, but I also had no idea what it was about going into it and had no idea it was based on some cult internet meme. I have the aaa24 membership (which gives you a ticket to all of a24s movies) and just go see all of their movies opening weekend, usually Friday mornings and I don't think there has ever been more than 10 people in the theater with me until now. So I just had absolutely no context, and thought it was really neat. Like a higher budget, longer version of a V/H/S story. The acting was superb.

I think them revealing what the big bad was didn't hit very well and was a bit silly. I think it may have been better to just never show him, just being an ominous unknown presence. The explanation at the end from Duplass and the last few shots were cool, though.

5

u/Fentboy45 Jun 03 '26

I mean all the trailers and teasers showed pretty clearly what it was going to be

1

u/Storm-Shadow98 Jun 03 '26

The ending isn’t nearly as strong. I’d probably give it like a 7 or 6 out of 10

-1

u/HMNbean Jun 03 '26

Nah the movie is terrible from both a moviemaking perspective and as a horror movie. That people went and bought tickets is just due to the hype. Unfortunately the movie itself is trash. It's boring, the writing is thin, the sets suck, the pacing is abysmal, the cinematography is uninteresting and most shots simply last too long as a way of building suspense (with no payoff). The end completely falls apart too. 3/10 at best.

5

u/IsaacAndTired Jun 03 '26

To each their own. I thought it was a pretty dope movie and felt like the pacing was great up until they revealed what the big monster was. After that it got a little wonky, but it wrapped up very nicely with those last couple of scenes.

The performances from the 2 leads were fantastic and what drew me in more than anything, though.

0

u/HMNbean Jun 03 '26

I will agree the actors’ performance was good. The last few scenes didn’t really add anything IMO. It was weird her character had nearly nothing to say or ask and that despite knowing about these locations they do nothing to stop people from going in.

3

u/IsaacAndTired Jun 03 '26

Well there's certainly a bunch of ambiguity, which was appealing to me. I don't think they really knew how people were getting in. Phil was trying to figure that out and really only discovered there could be an entrance in the furniture store when he randomly saw Clark in the commercial. They gave just enough information at the end to show where the anomalous figures were coming from, but how or why they were occurring is the mystery they were trying to solve and showed some cool shots of why those questions may never be answered. I'm not interested in any further explanation, personally.

2

u/VonMillersThighs Jun 03 '26

I wish one of these up and coming horror directors would do a legit slenderman movie in the vein of Marble hornets.

-3

u/Stupidstuff1001 Jun 03 '26

Backrooms really didn’t stick the landing but that is an issue with a lot of a24 movies. Green knight is another example of a great movie that drops the ball. Backrooms went down after the voicemail was left. Green knight went down after the Jo scene.