In the US, ‘Backrooms’ and ‘Obsession’ are currently the top-grossing films at the box office. ‘Obsession’, which was made on a budget of $1 million, has grossed $150 million in two weeks, while ‘Backrooms’, which had a budget of $1 million, has grossed $120 million in less than three days.
We use Google Cloud Translation Services. Google requires we provide the following disclaimer relating to use of this service:
This service may contain translations powered by Google. Google disclaims all warranties related to the translations, expressed or implied, including any warranties of accuracy, reliability, and any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and noninfringement.
The films that have been making video content and uploading it to their own YouTube channels have recently broken records at the US box office. These low-budget films have not only changed the definition of the global cinema market, but are also expected to change the future of filmmaking.
In the US, the films of two Gen-G directors, ‘Backrooms’ and ‘Obsession’, are currently at number one and number two on the list of highest-grossing films at the box office. While ‘Backrooms’ director Kim Parsons is only 20 years old, ‘Obsession’ director Curry Barker is 26 years old. Both of them learned the art of feature film production while uploading content to YouTube. The horror genre ‘Obsession’, which has been in theaters since May 15, was made for only $7.5 million to $1 million, but the film has already earned $150 million in two weeks. The low-budget film was only marketed online by the production company Blumhouse.
Similarly, ‘Backrooms’, which hit American theaters two weeks after ‘Obsession’, on May 29, was made at a cost of $10 million. It stars popular actors like Mark Duplass and Renate Rensway. This psychological horror genre film has topped the box office in North America, earning eight times its production cost ($80 million) in its first three days. The film, which is mostly watched by Gen-G audiences, has grossed $120 million worldwide. Its distributor, Studio A24, initially struggled to get the film released in theaters. Even the exhibitors (hallwala) did not believe in ‘Backrooms’, a low-budget film directed by a 20-year-old YouTuber, but the unbelievable flow has now brought a flood of viewers to the box office.
After ‘Backrooms’ took the first place at the box office, ‘Obsession’ was pushed to second place, followed by Star Wars’ ‘The Mandalorian and Grogu’. This film, with a budget of Rs 16.5 crore, could not even beat ‘Obsession’, which was released the previous week. The younger generation of viewers who are flocking to the theaters are only attracted to watching films by Gen-G directors. According to the hall manager, the audience seen in the hall is completely new and they do not usually come to the hall to watch films. Hollywood is watching this very carefully and it is estimated that many film production studios may follow the production model of these two films. According to exit polls, 86 percent of the audience who come to the hall to watch ‘Backrooms’ are under the age of 35. Of which, more than half are under the age of 25 and 44 percent are under the age of 21.
For most films, the ‘opening weekend’ is the highest-earning time, after which ticket sales decline. But both ‘Backrooms’ and ‘Obsession’ are seeing strong box office growth. Focus Features, the distributor of ‘Obsession’, claims that this is the first film since 1982 to see a second and third weekend of growth, outside of the ‘festive mood’ of Christmas. What does the sudden surge in theatrical sales mean? It means that today’s youth, especially the Gen-G generation, who are addicted to TikTok and YouTube, are ready to buy tickets and watch a film in a theater if the film is made by a creator they know after seeing it on YouTube. This means that Hollywood studios will follow the success of ‘Obsession’ and ‘Backrooms’ and start looking for other filmmakers on online video sites. It also shows the possibility that film studios may increase their investment in original stories rather than franchises and sequels.
“The business of these two films has lit a ray of hope,” Duplass, who plays a scientist in “Backrooms,” said in a video message on social media, “It has done an exemplary job for us creators to develop their ideas and stories, put them online and build their audience. He also said that those with money should now pay attention to investing in such content.
YouTuber Mark Fishback’s self-financed film “Iron Lung,” which was released on January 30, also raised the commercial potential of even low-budget films by selling a significant number of tickets at the box office.
