Backrooms And Obsession Turn The Weekend Box Office Upside Down
· BCPosted in: Box Office, Movies | Tagged: a24, Backrooms, Curry Barker, Kane Parsons, obsession
Backrooms And Obsession Turn The Weekend Box Office Upside Down
Backrooms and Obsession have stunned Hollywood, setting all kinds of records at the weekend box office in the process.
Published Mon, 01 Jun 2026 15:03:10 -0500
by Jeremy Konrad
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Article Summary
- Backrooms shocks the weekend box office with an $81 million domestic debut, the biggest opening in A24 history.
- Backrooms launches to $118 million worldwide, as 20-year-old director Kane Parsons becomes a breakout name.
- Obsession keeps making history too, rising 10% in weekend three to $26.4 million and topping $104 million total.
- Backrooms and Obsession crush Mandalorian and Grogu, while Scary Movie 6 and Masters of the Universe loom.
Backrooms didn't just blow away expectations at the weekend box office; it rewrote history. The A24 film made an astounding $81 million domestically, a record for the studio. Director Kane Parsons, at just 20 years old, becomes the youngest filmmaker to open a film at number one. Made for around $10 million, worldwide it opens to $118 million total. Parsons instantly becomes a director to watch, and May 2026 will forever be known as the month Hollywood figured out how to get the YouTube generation into theaters. Backrooms was not the only film to set records and have theater owners squeal with delight, though.
Credit: Courtesy of A24
Backrooms & Obsession Turn The Box Office On Its Head
No, the other just as big story is the three-week run of Curry Barker's Obsession. For the second straight weekend, it gained box office from the previous week, grossing another $26.4 million and up 10%. The last time this happened outside of the Christmas release corridor? You have to go all the way back to 1982, and E.T. That is some rare air for sure. The thriller is now at a running gross of $104 million, again far exceeding expectations and becoming the highest-grossing film in Focus Features' history. The second weekend of Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu ran into the Backrooms/Obsession buzzsaw and saw a 69% drop, much larger than they had anticipated. It's fine- the film has to be profitable already for Disney just on the merchandise sales and such, but even without the two films ahead of it having historic runs, I still think it would have had a similar drop.
The weekend box office top five for May 29:
- Backrooms- $81 million
- Obsession- $26.4 million
- Star Wars- The Mandalorian and Grogu- $25 million
- Michael- $11.1 million
- The Breadwinner- $7.5 million
This week, two heavy hitters kick off June. Scary Movie 6 wants that top spot, but so does Masters of the Universe. I want He-Man to be successful in the worst way, but against the three-headed monster it now faces, Amazon MGM has to be worried. Sadly, I see a scenario where it opens at around $20-25 million, which might only be good enough for fourth place. The top three are a toss-up. Will Backrooms hold? Will Obsession keep gaining instead of falling? Who knows. I think Scary Movie will finish second to Backrooms, with Obsession in third. I'm hoping for a Masters Hail Mary, though.
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