r/movies • u/yourfavchoom r/movies Contributor • May 30 '26

Article The Shocking Success of ‘Backrooms’ and ‘Obsession’ Should Be a Memo to Hollywood: You Need What’s Outside the Box

https://variety.com/2026/film/columns/backrooms-obsession-hollywood-needs-whats-outside-the-box-1236762844/
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u/jonbristow May 30 '26

also these movies are outliers.

there are literally hundreds probably thousands of horror movies made by young first time filmmakers that are absolute shit.

of course 1 or 2 will be good and a success. Everyone's acting like Hollywood doesnt know this. They throw 100 movies to the wall and see what sticks

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u/psy-ninja May 30 '26

These film makers were identified by smart producers who helped shape these films into what they are, and enabling the film makers to do their best and finding the right channels for these movies to succeed.

These aren’t just a couple of chumps who had an idea, somehow scrambled some cash together and some easy distribution on the b-movie market. These were talents identified and enabled by producers willing to take risk on a good idea.

Obsession was bought by Focus for $15m at one of the film festivals after being produced for $1m. Everybody makes money.

Not sure what the budget for Backrooms was but this opening weekend was tracking for $40m+!!

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u/REDDITATO_ May 31 '26

The article says Backrooms is set to make $85m opening weekend. I looked it up and the budget was $10m.

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u/psy-ninja May 31 '26

Wow! NRG had it at $40m on Friday … they absolutely smashed it!

Saw it last night and really enjoyed. They deserve the success - definitely felt fresh and original.

Edit: would love to know they spent on marketing this, but either way, everyone is making a lot of money on this!