‘Backrooms’ Becoming A24’s Highest Grossing Movie Ever Worldwide, Besting Timothée Chalamet’s $191M+ ‘Marty Supreme’ – Box Office
EXCLUSIVE: In less than a year’s time, A24 has beat its own records twice: Kane Parsons’ viral-born Backrooms will become the New York studio’s highest grossing movie ever this weekend, if not by Mon…
EXCLUSIVE: In less than a year’s time, A24 has beat its own records twice: Kane Parsons’ viral-born Backrooms will become the New York studio’s highes
Read Full Story at Deadline Hollywood →Why This Matters
The rise of *Backrooms* to A24’s highest-grossing film underscores the studio’s uncanny ability to transform niche internet phenomena into mainstream success. It signals a shift in how horror and surrealism can dominate box office charts without relying on star power or conventional marketing, proving that viral culture has fully infiltrated theatrical distribution.
Background Context
A24 has long been a disruptor in indie cinema, but its embrace of *Backrooms*—a creepypasta born from a 4chan post—reflects a calculated pivot toward algorithm-driven content. The studio’s previous record holder, *Everything Everywhere All At Once*, boasted an Oscar-winning pedigree, while *Marty Supreme* leaned on Timothée Chalamet’s star power. This marks a departure from both models.
What Happens Next
Studios will likely scramble to replicate A24’s strategy, greenlighting more online-born IP with theatrical potential. The studio itself may double down on surreal or found-footage horror, testing whether this model scales beyond niche audiences. Meanwhile, competitors like Neon or Neon Films could attempt to poach viral properties before A24 secures them.
Bigger Picture
This phenomenon highlights the eroding distinction between digital and traditional entertainment, where memes and movies blur into a single ecosystem. It also raises questions about the sustainability of such trends—can a studio repeatedly turn Reddit threads into box office gold, or is this a one-off fluke fueled by pandemic-era streaming fatigue?
