by Matt Rodgers
This weekend at the box-office Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu hasn’t been downed by The Galactic Empire or another Disney-owned IP, but by Gen Z filmgoers turning up in huge numbers to support two critically acclaimed horror films. The results are extraordinary.
A24’s Backrooms took a whopping $81 million at North American ticket offices, while Obsession performed the unprecedented feat of out-grossing its previous two weekends at the box-office with $26.4 million.Both films were directed by YouTubers; Backrooms by 20-year-old Kane Parsons, and Obsession by 26-year-old Curry Barker.
The former cost $10 million to produce, and grossed $118 million globally on its debut, which is the largest opening ever for A24, and earned Parsons the title of the youngest director ever to have the top film at the box-office. We called Backrooms “a rather remarkable debut, steeped in existential dread and psychological terror” in our ★★★★ review (which you can read here).
Obsession‘s performance was just as impressive, improving 10% over the previous frame, and becoming the first film since 1982’s E.T. The Extra Terrestrial to see ticket sales increase over the first three weekends of release. The terrific horror has now amassed $106 million domestically and $148 million worldwide, all off a miniscule budget of below $1 million.
With these two buzzy hits occupying the top two spots, it meant that last week’s champ Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu suffered a huge 70% drop. The Disney+ spin-off earned $25 million in its sophomore frame, taking its domestic total to $137.4 million and the worldwide tally to $246.6 million. Disney and Lucasfilm will now be hoping that the franchise rejuvenation starts next summer with Shawn Levy’s Star Wars: Starfighter, which stars Project Hail Mary’s Ryan Gosling.
As always let us know what you spent your ticket money on this weekend by heading to our social channels @FlickeringMyth…
