Backrooms and Obsession are thriving in theaters this weekend as audiences choose horror over Star Wars
Backrooms had a fantastic opening weekend at the domestic box office, breaking records for A24. By comparison, Disney’s Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu continues to struggle in its second weekend, as it isn’t even the second highest-grossing film of the weekend.
According to Deadline, Backrooms has resonated with younger audiences and grossed $81.4 million domestically across its three-day opening weekend. That is the highest-performing opening weekend ever for a movie made by A24 and makes 20-year-old director Kane the youngest director to ever have a number one movie at the box office. It’s truly impressive that Backrooms had an even better opening weekend than the likes of Project Hail Mary and The Devil Wears Prada 2, both of which were considered box office successes.
Polygon liked Backrooms, with reviewer Tasha Robinson writing, “In a spectacle-based film environment where it’s easy to forget most of the movies we watch before we’ve even left the theater, Backrooms leaves lingering shivers and ongoing anxieties.”
Generally, it has been a very good weekend for horror movies, as low-budget indie horror flick Obsession is the second-highest-grossing movie of this three-day weekend at $26.4 million. As a somewhat shocking result of those films’ success, The Mandalorian and Grogu is massively underperforming. It grossed $25 million domestically this weekend. That’s a 69% drop from its opening weekend and a terrible performance for such a storied theatrical franchise like Star Wars.
Deadline’s data suggest that younger audiences prefer fresher, horror-focused films like Backrooms and Obsession rather than the more formulaic sci-fi of the latest Star Wars. It also seems quite possible that The Mandalorian and Grogu will become the lowest-grossing Disney Star Wars movie, although we’ll have to wait for its theatrical run to end to confirm that.
As for Backrooms, expect it to stick around in theaters for some time. Eventually, the horror movie will make its way to streaming, most likely on HBO Max.