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Audiences Worldwide Are Still Getting Lost in ‘Backrooms’

A24's horror film 'Backrooms' has surpassed $350 million globally, making it the studio's highest-grossing film and outperforming 'Obsession'. Directed by Kane Parsons, the film's success follows a re-release with added footage and has topped box offices in multiple countries.

read1 min views1 publishedJul 8, 2026
Audiences Worldwide Are Still Getting Lost in ‘Backrooms’
Image: Gizmodo (auto-discovered)

Obsession just crossed the $400 million mark, and the year’s other big horror breakout isn’t far behind. Backrooms, which opened two weeks after Obsession and reached $100 million in just a week, has now made more than $350 million worldwide. This comes on the heels of the Backrooms: Everything Must Go Edition, which added 15 minutes of new footage into the theatrical release.

This is great news for studio A24, which would surely prefer the spotlight shift back to its highest-grossing film of all time and away from its controversial Google AI deal. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Kane Parsons’ feature expansion of his viral YouTube shorts has earned $357 million globally. That haul has made it the top-earning A24 film in a number of countries, including China, France, Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Poland, and Thailand.

It has also pulled in crowds in Germany and Taiwan, as well as Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands.

All this is to say that Backrooms—about a man (Chiwetel Ejiofor) who discovers an unsettling liminal zone adjacent to his furniture store—has a universal appeal that might’ve seemed obvious given Parsons’ millions of YouTube fans, but who could have guessed how much it would resonate with audiences?

While *Obession*‘s Curry Barker has several projects already on his slate, including a new [ Texas Chainsaw Massacre](https://gizmodo.com/curry-barkers-texas-chainsaw-massacre-may-be-a-family-affair-2000753936) movie, it’s not certain yet what Parsons might be working on next. In early June,

[Deadline](https://deadline.com/2026/06/backrooms-sequel-kane-parsons-1236938378/)suggested he might expand

Backroomsinto a “feature anthology,” meaning this may not be the last we’ve seen of those sickly yellow spaces.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest

[Marvel],[Star Wars], and[Star Trek]releases, what’s next for the[DC Universe on film and TV], and everything you need to know about the future of[Doctor Who].

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