> be A24
> indie studio, 14 years old
> known for arthouse stuff like Hereditary and EEAO
> your biggest opening ever was Civil War at $25.5M
> sign a 20-year-old YouTuber nobody in Hollywood knows
> give him under $10M for a horror movie about empty rooms
> based on a single anonymous 4chan post from 2019
> it opens to $81.4M
> that's more than triple your old record
> biggest original horror debut in history
> crosses $100M domestic in 6 days, first time you've ever done it
> the kid becomes the youngest director ever to hit number one
> sequel already in your contract
turns out the scariest room in the building was the one where you green-lit it.
🚨 do you understand what happened at the box office this week..
A movie about a man walking through empty yellow rooms just made more money than any A24 film in history.
It was directed by a 20-year-old, made for under $10M, and based on a single 4chan post from 2019.
- Backrooms opened to $81.4M, beating A24's old record by over 3x
- It crossed $100M domestic in 6 days - the studio's first film to ever do it
- The found-footage VHS look wasn't shot on real film, it was built in free software called Blender
- 88% of the audience was under 35 and they showed up for empty hallways
turns out the scariest thing in the room was the budget meeting at every other studio.