This weekend’s two biggest movies were both directed by YouTubers
Two horror films from YouTubers are driving the box office, with Backrooms set for A24's biggest opening and Obsession defying normal weekend drops.
Intelligence analysis by GPT-5.4 Mini
YouTube creators are breaking into mainstream film in a big way. Backrooms and Obsession are both horror movies directed by former YouTubers, and both are outperforming typical box-office patterns.
Two people who got famous on YouTube are now making big movies that people are paying to see in theaters. One movie is called Backrooms, and the other is Obsession.
Backrooms is doing very well right away, like a toy that sells out on the first day. Obsession is even stranger because it is still getting more popular after opening, which is not how most movies act.
The article says this happens because these creators built fans over a long time. It is like having a school play where the whole town already knows the lead actor and comes to watch.
Analysis
A creator-to-cinema pipeline
The weekend box office is being led by two films tied to YouTube creators. "Backrooms," directed by Kane Parsons, is a feature expansion of his eerie YouTube series and is projected to open with $80 million to $90 million domestically after a $38 million Friday.
That would make it A24's biggest opening by a wide margin. The article says the studio's previous record was "Civil War," which opened to $25.7 million in its first weekend.
Horror is the common thread
The second major title, "Obsession," is also a horror film and comes from Curry Barker, who made the hourlong found-footage film "Milk & Serial" on YouTube in 2024. It earned $8 million on Friday and is estimated to reach $28.5 million over the weekend.
What makes "Obsession" notable is not just its size, but its staying power. The story says it already made more money in its second weekend than its first, and its third weekend is expected to rise another 19 percent. The article notes that wide releases usually fall 50% to 70% in their second weekend, making this kind of growth highly unusual.
Why these creators stand out
The article connects this trend to earlier success from "Iron Lung," the video game adaptation directed by Mark Fischbach, better known as Markiplier, which grossed nearly $41 million domestically. Citing Rutgers Cinema general manager Mark DelVecchio, the piece argues that these creators have something many other YouTubers lacked: longevity and a loyal audience built over years.
DelVecchio's point is that some creators have spent long enough on YouTube to build a following that will follow them into theaters. In this framing, the box office success is less a fluke than proof that internet fame can become durable mainstream demand when the audience is already deeply attached.
Key points
- Backrooms, directed by Kane Parsons, is projected to deliver A24's biggest opening ever.
- Obsession is beating normal box-office patterns by growing in later weekends.
- Both films come from creators who first built audiences on YouTube.
- The article links the trend to earlier success from Markiplier's Iron Lung.
- A Rutgers Cinema manager says long-term audience loyalty is what sets these creators apart.
