Warner Bros. Pictures chief Mike De Luca says the box office success of A24’s “Backrooms” and Focus Features’ “Obsession” is tied to a new path for filmmakers—shaped online, built with cheaper tools, and made visible to producers through platforms like YouTube
Warner Bros. Pictures chief Mike De Luca sounded convinced as he talked through how two recent box office standouts found their footing — and it wasn’t just about genre or marketing.
Speaking Saturday at the Produced By Conference. De Luca pointed to A24’s “Backrooms” and Focus Features’ “Obsession. ” arguing that their directors came up in a world where audiences can be involved from the start. “They hone their craft online. Kane worked on ‘Backrooms’ for five years,” De Luca said. “These filmmakers are in a dialogue with their audience from the word ‘go.’ Their subscribers have direct input in each iteration of these things.”.
For De Luca, that access is the real shift. The gatekeeping that once kept young writer-directors out of Hollywood has loosened, making it far easier for talent to be seen — and for work to evolve in public.
“It was really expensive for a young writer-director to make a short film or make an actual full-length independent movie,” De Luca added. “Now the tools of filmmaking have become cheaper. You can get something on YouTube seen by a producer, and you don’t have to go to film school.”
Producers, he said, have adapted too. De Luca specifically credited “Obsession” producer James Harris for finding Barker by watching shorts on YouTube. “Good for him for getting to that guy first,” De Luca said. “But that’s available to all producers. YouTube and TikTok and Instagram are where oncoming talent is. Honing their craft and not having to go to film school, not having to get into some dance.”.
De Luca’s comments landed close to a theme Jason Blum had raised earlier the same day at the Produced By Conference. Blum drew a parallel between today’s YouTube-bred filmmakers and the 1970s film auteur movement. saying. “A little bit like the 70s. I would say the writer-director is the star again. which I think is fantastic.”.
In De Luca’s telling, the combined effect is straightforward: more filmmakers are building their craft where audiences can find them, and more producers are watching those pipelines closely. What once was a locked door has become a visible route — one iteration at a time.
Mike De Luca Warner Bros. Pictures A24 Backrooms Focus Features Obsession Produced By Conference James Harris Barker YouTube TikTok Instagram Jason Blum 1970s auteur movement writer-director
So basically YouTube is replacing Hollywood gatekeepers? wild.
I don’t buy it. Like sure, a producer might scroll YouTube but the “box office” still needs marketing money, right? Also “Obsession” sounds like something else entirely lol.
They say “cheaper tools” but it’s still not cheap to make anything people will watch. Plus I feel like they’re saying producers just watch TikTok and somehow that equals talent. Maybe if you blow up fast enough.
Interesting that they’re crediting YouTube for finding the director, but I’m confused how “Backrooms” got a producer from shorts when that whole vibe is already everywhere. Feels like gatekeeping just moved platforms, not disappeared. Also De Luca talking about no film school like that automatically makes it easier—idk, plenty of people post and nothing happens.