Kane Parsons directing Chiwetel Ejiofor on set. (A24)
There's a feeling in town this week that the ground just moved. Two horror movies made by YouTube directors for almost no money took the top two spots and shoved a $165M 'Star Wars' tentpole into third. The takeaways, for a lot of folks: original ideas beat legacy IP, directors are the new movie stars, and the franchise era is finally ending.
The analogy making the rounds is the 1970s, when young film-school directors upended the old studio system with personal, original films. Jason Blum went there himself, pegging Parsons and Barker as the new version of those upstarts, schooled on YouTube instead of in a film program. It's not a hard case to make:
- It's three-for-three now: 'Backrooms,' 'Obsession,' and January's self-funded 'Iron Lung' (Markiplier's $3M sci-fi horror that grossed ~$50M) are all YouTuber-made hits this year.
- 'Backrooms,' adapted from a horror meme born on the 4chan message boards, out-opened major franchise titles like 'Scream' and 'The Devil Wears Prada 2' and posted the biggest opening in A24's history.
- Gen Z, long written off as the lost theatrical generation, showed up and sold out theaters, with 86% of 'Backrooms' buyers under 35.
Looking ahead… There are no more major YouTuber titles on the 2026 docket, so the trend pauses here for now, and the summer slate goes back to bristling with tentpoles. 'Toy Story 5,' 'Supergirl,' Christopher Nolan's 'The Odyssey,' and 'Spider-Man: Brand New Day' are all loaded in the chamber.
