The multimillion-dollar openings of indie horror flicks Obsession and Backrooms have Hollywood buzzing about the 20-something YouTuber directors who are driving Generation Z audiences to the theatre in droves.
The endless yellow hallways of A24’s Backrooms, directed by 20-year-old Kane Parsons, terrified tens of thousands of people in its opening weekend to rack up $118 million at the box office.
And Focus Features film Obsession, directed by 26-year-old Curry Barker, has taken in $148 million worldwide in two weeks — a smash hit for a production that cost $750,000.
“It’s a huge, huge success and a real turning point for the industry, potentially,” said associate editor Matthew Frank of The Ankler, a digital media company that covers Hollywood.
“They’re breaking out with these films that are appealing to a younger demographic,” Frank said, adding that the vast majority of ticket buyers the past couple weekends “have been under 35 and even, you know, under 25. So it’s appealing to this demographic [that] normally doesn’t really get spoken to.”
