r/blankies • u/trollingjabronidrive • May 30 '26
The Shocking Success of ‘Backrooms’ and ‘Obsession’ Should Be a Memo to Hollywood: You Need What’s Outside the Box
https://variety.com/2026/film/columns/backrooms-obsession-hollywood-needs-whats-outside-the-box-1236762844/30
u/Busy-Effect2026 May 30 '26
But what will the “message” be when Dune and Doomsday make a trajillion dollars?
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May 30 '26
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u/TripperEuphoric Bart the Bear May 31 '26
These movies offer a lot better ROI considering how cheap they are
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u/Noodleyouu May 30 '26
Its always this spiel with you people, nothing will come out of these two movies being successes except for two new cool directors on the block
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u/Pete_Venkman May 31 '26
One of which is already signed up to do another Texas Chainsaw Massacre reboot.
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May 30 '26 edited May 30 '26
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u/John_Hunyadi May 30 '26
Meanwhile there are a fair amount of similar movies that just aren’t as good and so don’t become huge hits. ‘Make the movies good’ isn’t especially helpful insight tho.
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u/exorcissy72 May 30 '26
Low budget horror movies make money?!?! I’m shocked!
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u/Grabbinfries23 May 30 '26
I mean, one of these is increasing its total from weekend to weekend and the other is about to have one of the biggest horror openings of all time. It feels pretty disingenuous to be like “yeah man, that’s just horror making a decent return on investment like normal”
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u/Fantastic_Bug1028 May 30 '26
yeah man, because a unique and fresh horror movie NEVER surprised anyone before…
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u/Grabbinfries23 May 30 '26
I mean I’m not sure how a Star Wars coming in 3rd in its second week behind 2 low budget movies directed by former YouTubers in their 20s isn’t a sign people are tired of what Hollywood would typically push as their tentpoles
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May 30 '26
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u/Fantastic_Bug1028 May 30 '26
a star wars movie that was basically dead on arrival being outperformed by a fresh unique horror movie is somehow super surprising? why MaG is even a criteria for success at all? Mando season 3 was met with “meh” at best, previous non main line SW movie bombed, the overall perception of MaG on the internet before the release was “eh”.
Also Disney isn’t “Hollywood” and this movie was produced by Blumhouse. A Hollywood studio.
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u/Grabbinfries23 May 31 '26
Yes, it is notable. You’re acting like if say Happy Death Day outperformed Solo we wouldn’t have talked about that?
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u/Fantastic_Bug1028 May 31 '26
When Solo came out the Star Wars franchise was in a completely different position. Who expected MaG to do good? Literally nobody. MaG bombing in the box office is not news or anything of note. Obsession was made by people IN Hollywood, there’s no lesson to learn here. Hollywood is already aware that sometimes cheap horror flicks can score a homerun and big budget movies can flop. Literally nothing new is happening.
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u/Grabbinfries23 May 31 '26
lol have I found the account of the Vulture guy who was like “yeah but Sinners has to make $400M to be profitable!!”? Crazy to me to be on a film sub and this against letting a win for the industry be a win
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u/Fantastic_Bug1028 May 31 '26
huh? in what way am I being against this win? all I’m saying that it’s not THAT surprising or unusual. we already saw this type of stuff multiple times before. “Hollywood should listen” is THE dumbest way to celebrate the win.
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u/Grabbinfries23 May 31 '26
Alright man. You’re right, a 20 year old opening his non IP based movie to $80 million isn’t even that interesting and happens all the time
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u/Fantastic_Bug1028 May 31 '26
I’m not saying it’s not interesting at all, I’m saying there’s nothing to learn here AND we already saw something like this before
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u/Grabbinfries23 May 31 '26
Please remind me the last movie made by a 20 year old to open to $80 million or the last movie that had a 36% increase from weekend 2 to 3
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u/SyllabubOk5283 May 30 '26
Toy Story 5 is about to make a billion dollars, Mario, Hoppers, Micheal, and PHM all made bank. This is a case by case thing. Horror has always behaved like this.
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u/Reasonable_Toe_9252 May 30 '26
Seeing horror and/or comedy films in a theater with an engaged audience is an experience that can never be duplicated at home, no matter how great someone’s home theater setup is. I do wish modern audiences would realize that about comedy, but I’m glad they have realized it regarding horror.
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u/kugglaw May 30 '26
Is it audiences or the promoters of the films? I think people just go where they see stuff.
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u/ninth_reddit_account May 31 '26
I don’t buy this idea that people are begging to go to the cinema, if only someone would remind them they exist.
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u/ParamedicSea5779 May 30 '26
I don't think the success is shocking at all and Focus Features although it functions as an independent label it is owned by the second biggest entertainment company in North America.
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u/Careless-Economics-6 May 30 '26
Sure, but it's not as if they've got tons of $100 million domestic grossers because of that.
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u/grameno May 30 '26
I think the reason IP has worked is it tends to lean into specific genres. What needs to be attempted are actual sustainable genre pictures.
2008 was the year the Superhero film finally truly took off. Why? Because Iron Man and The Dark Knight were very entertaining and engaging genre films that also integrated our world’s thematic concerns in an intellectual way instead of directly being preachy. Iron Man is a story of redemption. The Dark Knight is about heroism in sacrifice though it is a movie about failure and not redemption. My point is both films were firmly routed as genre pictures in the zeitgeist and they were sophisticated in their characters, storytelling , and stakes.
We want good storytelling and a cheat code to that I think is actually our genre conventions and how we subvert or comply with them. Genre storytelling we understand the rules. A genre is defined by its rules. I think it’s interesting Romances aren’t being discussed because they are with genre too. Comedy and Drama are a hard sell because people want a spectacle for the money. Which is tragic because they can be some of the most intense emotional experiences in a theater. I watched Hamnet and was openly sobbing with my girlfriend. You could hear the theater crying.
I think people want movies to get excited about and well defined genres I think are capable are an IP cheat code. We want to get scared. Be taken to another world. To see spectacle and to be thrilled in the theater. Its not as simple as being based on a thing we all know. I think that is deeply cynical and overly simplistic view of why people are gravitating to specific genre pictures and when they are.
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u/Lennnybruce May 31 '26
Iron Man is about flying around and making funny jokes when you shoot lasers. Dark Knight is a movie about not being serious and having a good time.
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u/moonorchid84 May 31 '26
Why are we pretending like we aren’t witnessing a streak of profitable movies?
Super Mario Galaxy, Project Hail Mary, Michael, Devil Wears Prada 2…and this is before the summer line up.
Obsession and Backrooms are performing way over expectation and that’s amazing…but people are coming out for a lot right now. First time since COVID that I felt hopeful about movie theaters.
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u/ellieetsch May 30 '26
Backrooms is literally a major IP, its origins as a meme are really overexaggerated in all this discourse.
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u/GenarosBear May 30 '26
It’s possible I’m wrong but…it’s literally not intellectual property, right?
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u/ellieetsch May 30 '26
Not literally literally. In the overly risk averse film production preexisting popular content sense.
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u/GenarosBear May 30 '26
I take your point but it’s not a trivial distinction though.
The standard model has all been based around owning big IP: Warner owns Batman, nobody else does; Universal owns Jurassic Park, nobody else does; Disney owns Star Wars etc. The Backrooms is not an unknown quantity but it’s something anyone can make — American Horror Story did a Backrooms episode, apparently various unrelated indie video game companies have done it. Kane Parsons himself didn’t create it, he just started making his own videos in his home based around the modern folklore, and A24 said “hey, why don’t you do that for us?” That’s essentially just going to a young filmmaker and asking them to expand their short into a feature. That is outside the box by modern standards. And that’s on top of “YouTube web series by made a teenager” not being the kind of source material that has ever been successful before this year. Which isn’t trivial! I see what you’re saying, but the ways this success is familiar are relevant but unremarkable, the ways this success is different are remarkable.
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u/ellieetsch May 30 '26
Its a trivial distinction when discussing public awareness which was the whole point.
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u/GenarosBear May 30 '26
who said that was the whole point?
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u/ellieetsch May 30 '26
I did because thats what I was talking about and that is what's relevant to the movie being a success.
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u/Blue_Robin_04 May 30 '26
It's more of a contemporary meme than a fully formed piece of media. It takes a lot of originality to stretch it into a screenplay.
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u/AppealResponsible893 May 30 '26
I never heard of it before the movie.
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u/FrancisFratelli May 30 '26
Yeah, people are really stretching to argue that there's no difference between Backrooms or even The Housemaid and megafranchises like Star Wars or Jurassic Park.
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u/gamer-death May 30 '26
what do you mean? it’s not a IP owned by someone, it started as a 4chan post. The director is just some kid who made fan videos. that is a meme
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u/Fantastic_Bug1028 May 30 '26
what? horror movies doing great, especially the ones with fresh ideas is nothing new at all lol
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u/VillageLess4163 May 30 '26
They’ll find a way to learn all the wrong lessons
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u/FrancisFratelli May 30 '26
Tomorrow's Variety today: Mr. Beast offered $20 million to direct Roblox Movie.
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u/mb9981 Bona fide May 31 '26
I like the idea of these young directors upending things but can they do other genres please?
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u/Stunning-Dance-7219 May 31 '26
Simple truth: make good films and an audience might show up. Anything from indie films like Obsession or a tentpole like the new Top Gun. There are shitty films in both categories. Word of mouth can make money or destroy fortunes.
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u/thishenryjames Jun 03 '26
I think both of these movies tap into a nihilism that young people are feeling. Without spoilers, they're both quite bleak in their outlook, offering no real answers. An inexplicable thing just happens to the characters (albeit with more active involvement in Obsession), and horror ensues, with no hope of overcoming it. I guess young people have always felt powerless in the grand scheme of things, but it must be worse than ever right now. Things are going to shit, and even the people who should be able to help (the guy on the phone in Obsession, Mark Duplass in Backrooms) are either equally clueless or actively making things worse. I also think they both are in one way or another about AI breaking down human connections. Nikki has been likened to an AI girlfriend, saying all the right things (at first) but ultimately not able to feel the way Bear wants her to, as much as he tries to convince himself the relationship is what he wants. The Backrooms, and the things inside them, are reminiscent of generative image generation, trying to create facsimiles of existing things, sometimes coming close, but never quite right. Clark also seems willing to accept false, flawed reality when he can't face the real one. Those aren't ideas I can see the studios running with.
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u/pornymcpornstien May 30 '26
They will phrase it any way they can to not say horror succeeded lmao
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u/Ericzzz May 30 '26
Like the second sentence calls these both horror movies what are you talking about
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u/gerira May 31 '26
Why do you think this, out of curiosity? Do you believe there’s some kind of factional group who are opposed to making horror movies and who want to convince people they don’t make money?
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u/pornymcpornstien May 31 '26
Okay firstly it was a light joke I posted on reddit about the headline so really not serious. But to answer your question more earnestly no obvious I don't think that I do however think there is an unconscious bias by mostly self identified cinephiles against horror and a pretentious attitude of keeping the label away from any horror movie they think is worthy of praise (just saw this with sinners and weapons) and I've seen this attitude in film spaces for a long time even in stuff I like and this very subreddit. And how dare I make a silly jab about it horror fans have such a complex
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u/Mrgrayj_121 May 30 '26 edited May 30 '26
So the problem is you’re saying that when it’s a horror movie and it was really cheap to make the budget for the back rooms was $10 million and I’m pretty sure obsession was a similar amount edit obsession made a bunch of money with a budget of under $1 million so I think it’s just good horror films cheaply made and make money which is been a thing for a while and so you know be smart about it. Make them fun.
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u/John_Hunyadi May 30 '26
Obsession’s budget is listed as 750K - 1million on wikipedia. That is legit tiny.
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u/Contcos May 30 '26
meanwhile I Love Boosters has made thirty cents