Both horror movies are massive hits.
Obsession and Backrooms are having entirely different weekends as the summer blockbuster season begins. May 2026 was dominated by the massive horror hits, both of which are debut features from YouTubers that scored major box office records.
Curry Barker's Obsession, which follows a wish gone wrong that turns a young man's crush into a violent stalker, became the first non-holiday release since 1982 to have two consecutive weekends earn more than the previous weekend. Two weekends later, Kane Parsons' Backrooms, about a furniture store owner discovering an infinite series of interconnected rooms, earned the biggest domestic debut in history both for A24 and for an original horror movie.
Per Deadline, as of Saturday morning, Backrooms is projected to earn a 3-day total of $25.7 million at the domestic box office during its sophomore weekend, which is a huge 68% slump from its record-shattering debut weekend. While horror movies are frequently frontloaded and often have huge sophomore drops of 60% or more, this will still mark one of the 300 worst sophomore drops of all time if those numbers hold.
Another demerit for 2026's Backrooms was that it specifically activated a Gen Z audience. Gen Z-leaning movies tend to be frontloaded as well .
However, the movie didn't need a strong sophomore weekend haul in order to thrive. It reportedly only cost $10 million to make, which places its estimated break-even point somewhere around $25 million. It made that total back again this weekend at the domestic box office alone after spending its first full week in theaters grossing $146.2 million worldwide.
This means that by the end of 10 days in theaters, it will most likely have crossed the $200 million global milestone , which will see it earning back 20 times its budget. That cements it as a massively profitable movie, even if it continues to plummet over the next few weekends.
Meanwhile, Obsession is only projected to drop 9%. This is the first time that the movie has earned less than the weekend before, in addition to breaking the record for the best weekend 4 retention for a horror movie after 1999's The Blair Witch Project. The found footage smash hit, which is one of the most profitable movies of all time, grossed $248.6 million overall against a budget of less than $1 million.
Obsession has always been more of a sleeper hit, debuting at No. 3 but eventually climbing the charts to become one of Focus Features' Top 5 releases of all time. While its global gross of $171 million worldwide and counting will most likely be overtaken by Backrooms by the end of the weekend, the Curry Barker movie is in an even better position.
It reportedly cost only $750,000, so when it crosses the $200 million milestone , that will see it earning back more than 266 times its budget. Ultimately, despite their diverging fortunes this weekend, both 2026 horror movies are already zeitgeist-defining smash hits.
The fact that Obsession is a purely original movie and Backrooms is a movie that isn't part of a pre-established film franchise shows that original horror is continuing to thrive in the 2020s, which have been dominated by numerous major original hits from the genre, including Sinners, Smile, Longlegs, and M3GAN. Enjoy ScreenRant's box office coverage?
Click below to sign up for my weekly box office newsletter and get exclusive analysis, predictions, and more: Sign Up A hopeless romantic makes a wish for his long-time crush to fall in love with him, leading to a sinister enchantment.
Main Genre Horror Executive Producer David Haring, Leonora Darby, Jason Blum, Ruzanna Kegeyan, Mark Lane, Roman Viaris Powered by Expand Collapse 8.3/10 7/10 Backrooms 10 stars 9 stars 8 stars 7 stars 6 stars 5 stars 4 stars 3 stars 2 stars 1 star Like Follow Followed R Horror Mystery Science Fiction Release Date May 27, 2026 Runtime 110 minutes Director Kane Parsons Writers Will Soodik Producers Chris Ferguson, Dan Cohen, Dan Levine, James Wan, Jenno Topping, Kori Adelson, Michael Clear, Osgood Perkins, Peter Chernin, Roberto Patino, Shawn Levy Cast See All Backrooms is a film adaptation inspired by the viral found-footage shorts created Kane Parsons.
The film explores the eerie and surreal labyrinth known as the Backrooms, capturing unsettling experiences within its endless hallways and rooms. Main Genre Horror Executive Producer Chris White, Jesse Savath, Judson Scott, Kane Parsons Powered by Expand Collapse
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