'Backrooms' tops the daily box office among non-Korean films, without the rabid online following that powered its record US opening "Backrooms" (By4M studio) A sheet of mono-yellow wallpaper, an empty office hallway, the hum of fluorescent lights: In a certain corner of the internet, that mundane image has been shorthand for dread for years.The concept comes from the "Backrooms," a creepypasta that originated on the message board 4chan in 2019 and became a wildly viral YouTube series by American creator Kane Parsons, who began posting the episodes as a teenager.The 20-year-old has now carried the concept to the big screen. His feature debut, from indie powerhouse A24 and made for just under $10 million, took theaters by storm with $81.4 million in North America and $118 million worldwide. It was the biggest opening in the distributor's history, more than triple its previous record.In Korea, the film opened quietly on Wednesday, slipping in behind "Train to Busan" director Yeon Sang-ho's Cannes-premiered zombie blockbuster "Colony" and the $200 million Michael Jackson biopic "Michael."Expectations were not exactly sky-high. The original meme is little known here, which means the built-in fanbase that packed American theaters and returned for repeat viewings was never going to materialize.Even so, "Backrooms" has held the top of the non-Korean chart for five straight days since its release, drawing 303,264 admissions over the opening weekend, according to the Korean Film Council's tracking service.In daily admissions, it has ranked second since opening, behind only "Colony." Its 391,125 ticket sales as of Monday morning are more than triple the total for Disney's "Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu," which opened the same day.That number puts it ahead of recent horror hits' opening weeks, including last year's standout "Noise" (267,281 first-week admissions; 1.7 million total), and the similarly set Japanese title "Exit 8" (212,453 first week; 440,000 total). "Backrooms," starring Renate Reinsve (By4M studio) The momentum seems to have come largely through word of mouth, as viewers trade impressions online without necessarily turning out for the meme that gave rise to the film.Local distributor By4M studio leaned into that dynamic, running a social media campaign that has drawn users through accounts standing in for the film's eerie spaces and inviting them to map real-world locations of their own that resemble the backrooms.Also feeding the buzz was the film's unusually early arrival. Skewing toward arthouse fare beloved by cinephiles, A24 films typically reach Korean theaters months after their US release, if at all. Recent critically acclaimed titles like "Marty Supreme" and "If I Had Legs I'd Kick You" have yet to reach local screens.By contrast, "Backrooms" opened in Korea on May 27, two days before its North American debut.Korea has also seen a growing number of YouTube creators who've crossed into television and film in recent years, though none have traveled as far. "Damn Good Company" (JH Media/Detail Studio) Park Jae-han, known to fans as travel YouTuber Panni Bottle, wrote and produced the first three seasons of "Damn Good Company," a workplace satire set in a dysfunctional small firm that has drawn comparisons to the US series "The Office." In 2022, it became the first Korean web series to be invited to the Canneseries festival.Fellow big-name YouTuber Jin Yong-jin hit on something closer to "Backrooms" in form with "Nonexistent Movie."His team made full short films, then posted not the films themselves but recap-style reviews of them to the channel, so each title exists only as its own review. The project landed an invitation to the Busan International Film Festival that same year.