The biggest two movies in America right now, “Backrooms” and “Obsession,” come from twentysomething filmmakers who honed their craft on YouTube.
Their films were made with relatively low budgets and were marketed online. Now that they’re filling theaters with teens and young adults who rarely show up at the movies, all of Hollywood is paying attention, with experts predicting that studios will copy this moviemaking model many times over.
“Obsession,” directed by 26-year-old Curry Barker, opened in theaters May 15. Filmed for roughly $750,000, the darkly funny horror film has made almost $150 million to date, a jaw-dropping return on investment for Focus Features and Blumhouse Productions.
Then came “Backrooms,” directed by 20-year-old Kane Parsons, who developed the project for years on his YouTube channel.
Parsons had a bigger budget — about $10 million — and famous actors like Chiwetel Ejiofor, Renate Reinsve and Mark Duplass. But it was still astonishing to see “Backrooms” dominate the box office so thoroughly in its opening weekend.
