Backrooms is officially A24’s highest-grossing film worldwide and the studio’s first film to gross more than $200 million in ticket sales.
Directed by YouTuber Kane Parsons, the blockbuster horror grossed $212 million worldwide, including $135 million in North America. These profits exceeded the lifetime gross of Timothée Chalamet’s Marty Supreme ($191 million), previously the independent studio’s biggest film at the worldwide box office. What’s even more impressive is that “Backrooms” has only been in theaters for 10 days.
Fueled by an enthusiastic Gen Z audience, “Backrooms” set all kinds of records for A24, the company that specializes in producing arthouse favorites like “Everything, Everywhere All at Once,” “Lady Bird” and “Moonlight.” The film, based on Parsons’ popular web series about the eerie, seemingly endless rooms and structures known as liminal spaces, opened last weekend and secured the studio’s highest domestic debut ever at $81 million, more than tripling the record set by Alex Garland’s 2024 thriller Civil War ($25.5 million). In its second weekend, ticket sales were down 70%, but still grossed an impressive $25.8 million from 3,565 theaters from Friday to Sunday. A24 and Chernin Entertainment have jointly invested about $10 million in “Backrooms,” and it has already made a huge profit.
At the international box office, “Backrooms” earned $77 million in 57 territories. It broke A24’s opening weekend record in 41 countries, including Spain, and was ranked #1 in 42 markets: Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and Italy. Latin America leads all international territories with $24.2 million to date, making “Backrooms” the studio’s highest-grossing title in history in the region. In Australia and New Zealand, the film surpassed “Marty Supreme” to become A24’s highest-grossing title with $7.9 million.
In “Backrooms,” a furniture store owner (Chiwetel Ejiofor) discovers a secret doorway that leads to an endless series of nondescript rooms. When he disappears, his therapist (Renate Reinsve) steps into the unknown to save him. Although no sequel has been confirmed, Parsons has already hinted at the idea of turning Backrooms into a film series.
