It was a Sunday morning in late spring when the studio tracking sheets started looking like a horror movie themselves — at least if your name was on the Disney lot. A24’s Backrooms opened to $81 million from 3,442 North American theaters over the weekend, the biggest debut in the studio’s history and a number that lands well above even the most aggressive pre-release projections. Gen Z showed up, stayed, and apparently brought everyone they follow on TikTok.
The film, adapted from the internet’s most durable liminal-space mythology, had been tracking as a strong performer since its first trailer dropped in February. What nobody predicted was the Saturday-night leg. Audiences kept coming back, the CinemaScore conversation was favorable, and by Sunday afternoon A24 was confirming the record. The final domestic tally will push higher once Monday numbers are folded in.
The other horror story this weekend belonged to Obsession, which posted what Variety reported as an unprecedented second-weekend jump — a counter-programming anomaly that almost never survives a wide new release opening alongside it. The film added screens, kept its audience, and is now positioned as a genuine legs play heading into the slower pre-summer corridor.
Then there is The Mandalorian and Grogu. Disney’s first live-action Star Wars theatrical entry in years fell 70 percent in its second weekend, a drop that would be alarming for any studio tent-pole and is particularly pointed given the IP involved. A 70 percent fall-off places it among the steepest sophomore declines the franchise has ever recorded. The film still has its global total as a cushion, but the domestic narrative has shifted from event film to cautionary tale in the space of seven days.
The cumulative picture heading into the midweek: two horror films are splitting a newly energized genre audience, A24 is scheduling victory laps, and Disney is watching its screen count erode in real time. Next weekend’s holds will tell the fuller story.