20-Year-Old YouTuber's Indie Horror Film Grossed $118 Million — And Beat 'Star Wars' on Opening Weekend

Kane Parsons was 16 when he began uploading found-footage horror clips from his Petaluma bedroom, using Blender and Unreal Engine. Four years later, he has the No. 1 movie in the world and a business case that should unsettle every legacy studio in Hollywood.

Backrooms, released by A24 on 29 May, grossed $118 million (£89.2 million) worldwide in its opening weekend on a production budget of just $10 million (£7.56 million), Variety confirmed. The film pulled in $81.4 million (£61.5 million) domestically across 3,442 cinemas, making it the largest debut in A24's 14-year history. The previous record holder, Alex Garland's Civil War, opened to $25.5 million (£19.3 million) in 2024.

It also delivered the biggest opening ever for an original horror film and made Parsons the youngest filmmaker in US history to debut at No. 1. The previous benchmark belonged to Josh Trank, who was 27 when Chronicle topped the chart with $22 million (£16.6 million) in 2012.

A $10 Million Film That Matched a $165 Million Star Wars

The financial contrast with the rest of the box office is stark. Parsons' opening weekend figure essentially matched the three-day domestic launch of Disney's Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu, which opened to roughly $81 million (£61.3 million) a week earlier on a reported budget of $165 million (£124.7 million), according to The Hollywood Reporter.

In its second weekend, the Star Wars title tumbled 69% to $25 million (£18.9 million), landing in third place behind both Backrooms and Curry Barker's Obsession. That drop left The Mandalorian and Grogu facing a steep climb to the estimated $400 million (£302 million) to $500 million (£378 million) global total analysts say it needs to turn a profit.

Backrooms, by contrast, had already earned back nearly 12 times its production budget before the weekend was over.

The film stars Chiwetel Ejiofor as a struggling furniture store owner who discovers a portal to an eerie extra-dimensional maze, alongside Renate Reinsve as his therapist. It was produced by a heavyweight roster including James Wan, Shawn Levy, Osgood Perkins, and Peter Chernin. The screenplay was written by Will Soodik.

Its audience skewed overwhelmingly young. Eighty-six per cent of opening weekend ticket buyers were under 35, according to TheWrap, with 66 per cent under 25 and 44% under 21. For comparison, just 27% of The Mandalorian and Grogu's audience fell below 25.

Backrooms currently holds an 89% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes from critics, though audience scores sit lower at 74%. The film earned a B- on CinemaScore exit polls.

YouTube to Box Office: The Economics of Internet-Born IP

Parsons' path from bedroom creator to Hollywood is no longer an anomaly. His YouTube web series, produced under the channel name Kane Pixels, amassed roughly 190 million views before A24 greenlit the feature adaptation. The concept itself traces back to a single photograph posted on 4chan in 2019 depicting an unsettling expanse of empty, fluorescent-lit rooms. That image spiralled into one of the internet's most fertile horror mythologies.

The broader trend is building fast. Earlier in 2026, YouTube creator Mark Fischbach — better known as Markiplier — directed and self-financed Iron Lung, which earned $50 million (£37.8 million) worldwide against a $3 million (£2.27 million) budget. Danny and Michael Philippou's Talk to Me pulled in $92 million (£69.6 million) for A24 in 2023 on a reported $4.5 million (£3.4 million) spend. Barker's Obsession, produced for under $1 million (£756,000), has now crossed $104 million (£78.6 million) domestically in just 17 days.

Jason Blum, who produced Backrooms through Blumhouse-Atomic Monster, called YouTube 'a new place to look for the next generation of groundbreaking talent.'

For traditional studios now spending upwards of $250 million (£189 million) on franchise sequels with uncertain returns, the arithmetic is getting harder to ignore. A 20-year-old from Northern California just delivered a 1,080 per cent return on investment in three days.