Many are predicting that the psychological horror film Backrooms will earn a high Rotten Tomatoes rating. We still have time before the A24 production directed by Kane Parsons, who fans of his YouTube channel will know better as Kane Pixels, releases in US theaters on May 29. But that hasn’t stopped people from betting that the movie will be a hit with critics. A24 is betting big with Backrooms too, whose trailer has already gone viral on social media.
The film follows therapist (Renate Reinsve) as she tries to find her missing patient (Chiwetel Ejiofor), who has disappeared into a strange extradimensional space made out of yellow, office-like corridors found within his furniture store. Reactions to early screenings of the movie have been positive too, as momentum for the film continues to grow with an impressive box office prediction.
Backrooms is expected to earn a ‘Certified Fresh’ Rotten Tomatoes rating
A24’s Backrooms is predicted to earn an 84 for its critic’s Tomatoscore rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on a forecast from Kalshi (as of May 6). The full results of the bet can be found below:
- Above 30 (Rotten Tomatoes rating) – 99% chance
- Above 35 – 97%
- Above 40 – 96%
- Above 45 – 93%
- Above 50 – 93%
- Above 55 – 92%
- Above 60 – 84%
- Above 65 – 87% (surprisingly higher than Above 60)
- Above 70 – 79%
- Above 75 – 78%
- Above 80 – 69%
- Above 85 – 47%
- Above 90 – 28%
- Above 95 – 4%
For a film to earn a ‘Certified Fresh’ rating from the site, it needs to have a Tomatoscore of 75% or above and be given reviews from at least five top critics. So in these early predictions, it looks like Backrooms will receive this status and have some room to spare.
Since the beginning of the bet, which started on April 24, the RT score for Backrooms has continued to increase. It began with a relatively low 72, but it has steadily climbed day after day, with a particular spike in early May when it vaulted to an 83.
Backrooms had a solid test screening in mid-March that received very positive feedback, as noted by World of Reel. Parsons has had plenty of experience exploring the Backrooms concept with his popular YouTube web series, and viewers found that the movie did a good job in clarifying how this extradimensional space works over its roughly two-hour length. The film doesn’t rely on jump scares, instead using the unsettling atmosphere of the labyrinthine space to disorient the viewer. It’s this type of horror film that critics generally respond well to, in a similar fashion to the looping subway station of Exit 8 that earned a 93% on Rotten Tomatoes. Viewers additionally praised the performances from Reinsve and Ejiofor who both brought depth to their characters.
The movie has received an extraordinary amount of attention online, notably its teaser trailer on A24’s Instagram that has received over 1.5 million likes since its late February release. The official trailer for Backrooms that released on YouTube at the end of March has received over 27 million views so far and has earned more than a half million likes. By comparison, the official YouTube trailer for The Super Mario Galaxy Movie only received 295,000 likes and Project Hail Mary’s had 226,000 likes.
For these reasons, it’s projected that Backrooms will rake in somewhere between $14.5 million and $27 million in its domestic opener. Given that the production budget for the film is expected to be at most $11 million, this would mean that the film will be profitable within the first few weeks of its release (if not less). We still have to see if its social media presence will translate into tickets at the box office, especially since it will need to compete against The Mandalorian & Grogu, The Breadwinner, and Passenger, but the outlook for Backrooms is still looking frighteningly strong.
