What until a few years ago was just one of the most discussed and disturbing creepypastas on the web has now turned into an authentic cinematic phenomenon. Backrooms, the film directed by Kane Parsons and distributed by A24, is continuing to surprise analysts and insiders with a series of results that are rewriting several records of the horror genre. After recording the best debut in the history of A24, the film has reached a new milestone in the last few hours, proving that the enthusiasm of the public has not dried up at all after the opening weekend.
According to the latest data from the US box office, Backrooms grossed a whopping $7.669 million on the Monday following its debut alone, an impressive figure that represents the best Monday ever recorded by an R-rated horror film during the month of June. The previous record belonged to The Conjuring 2, which in June 2016 had stopped at about $4.3 million on the same day. A result that at the time seemed particularly difficult to overcome and which instead was literally demolished by Parsons’ film, capable of attracting a huge number of spectators to theaters even on a day traditionally less favorable to box office.
The figure takes on even more value considering that Backrooms has come close to another absolute record. The film came very close to breaking the overall record for the best Monday in June for a horror production, held by World War Z, which in 2013 had collected about $7.67 million. The final difference was minimal, a sign of how the success of the project is taking on increasingly surprising dimensions. Backrooms was made with a budget of less than 10 million dollars, an extremely small figure when compared to that of the big Hollywood productions that usually dominate the box office. Despite this, the film has already reached $89 million at the domestic box office in its first four days of programming, while global receipts have already exceeded $118 million.
These numbers confirm not only the strength of the A24 brand in the contemporary horror scene, but also the enormous popularity of the intellectual property created by Kane Parsons, who in recent years had managed to build a vast online community thanks to his disturbing videos set in the famous yellow and endless corridors of the Backrooms. Currently, experts estimate a drop of around 55%, an absolutely normal decline for a film that debuted with such high numbers.
If these estimates were to be confirmed, Backrooms could gross between 36 and 37 million dollars in its second weekend of programming, a figure that would even allow it to compete with highly anticipated new releases and to compete for the top positions of the ranking with the big blockbusters coming to theaters.
In light of these results, it seems inevitable that we are already starting to talk about the future of the franchise. Although there are still no official announcements regarding a release date, the hypothesis of a sequel now seems a simple matter of time. According to what has emerged in the last few hours, Kane Parsons would already be looking for a screenwriter to collaborate with to develop Backrooms 2, a clear sign that producers and studio strongly believe in the long-term potential of the saga.
The success of Backrooms also confirms an increasingly evident trend: horror cinema continues to be one of the most profitable genres in the entire film industry. With relatively low investments and an extremely loyal fanbase, productions of this type can often generate huge profits compared to the costs incurred. In the case of Backrooms, however, the phenomenon seems to go beyond simple commercial success, the film represents one of the very rare examples in which content born exclusively on the web manages to turn into a global cinematic event, keeping intact the charm that had conquered millions of online users.
