YouTube Shorts Turn Into Theater Hits—Backrooms Aftershocks

YouTube Shorts – Two horror films built on Gen Z creator instincts—A24’s “Backrooms” and Focus Features’ “Obsession”—have combined for $185 million at the domestic box office on $11 million in total production spend. With Curry Barker and Kane Parsons, both YouTube-trained, Ho

For years, Hollywood has chased a simple problem: how to get Gen Z to show up to theaters with the same consistency other generations once did. This weekend’s answer is sitting in a fluorescent-lit, doom-soaked world—and it’s coming from YouTube.

A24’s “Backrooms” and Focus Features’ “Obsession” have combined for $185 million and counting at the domestic box office against a combined $11 million production spend. The result is rare box-office chemistry: younger audiences rallying to see these films in theaters. And both movies were directed by Gen Z filmmakers who built their careers online—Curry Barker. 26. and Kane Parsons. 20—rather than through the traditional feature path.

“No longer are film schools where these kids learn their craft,” one agent told TheWrap. “The technology of YouTube and social media means they now get to learn how to write, direct, produce and edit their stories at a remarkably younger age than previous generations.”

The buzz now spreading through Hollywood is whether this is more than a fluke—whether YouTube has become a real pipeline into theaters, especially for a generation that, in their 20s, hadn’t been getting as many chances to leave a mark on the theatrical landscape.

What’s changed isn’t that online-to-theatrical routes didn’t exist before. The path is older than many people realize. What’s different with Parsons and Barker is the depth of immersion. They’ve been living inside the YouTube creator world long before their first steps into filmmaking.

While Hollywood veterans have marveled on panels at how feature-quality films can be made with iPhones and edited with cheap software, this generation’s familiarity runs deeper. They know how to curate, how to test, and how to read audience reaction as part of the craft.

“You can hone your craft and test with reactions in real time. No longer do filmmakers have to play theory all day or wait till someone blesses them. It’s now about how the internet is curated,” a manager told TheWrap.

For James Wan, the story feels familiar in a new way. Wan worked with Parsons as a producer on “Backrooms,” and he’s watched this kind of online-to-feature conversion happen more than once.

Wan was 27 when his feature debut “Saw” launched in the 2000s and helped spark a wave of gory horror. He came up during the millennial wave of directors using digital cameras to shoot shorts and computers running Premiere Pro to edit them.

Now Wan has his own horror production studio, Atomic Monster. Wan and company president Michael Clear worked with Parsons to bring Parsons’ fluorescent-light hellscape to theaters. It wasn’t the first time Atomic Monster chased something that began as a YouTube short. Wan described the connection through “Lights Out,” the first movie Atomic Monster produced.

“The very first movie that Atomic Monster produced was ‘Lights Out. ’ and it started as a YouTube short that David Sandberg made in 2013. ” Wan told TheWrap. “It had the same basic appeal as Kane’s original short ‘The Backrooms.’ It’s a cool. basic concept hook of someone turning the light on and off. and when the lights are off. there’s a demon sitting there. and when you see the lights back on. the demon’s gone. And then it just gets progressively closer when this person keeps turning the lights on and off.”.

Wan added that “Lights Out” got Atomic Monster on the map in Hollywood horror and helped launch Sandberg’s career. Sandberg went on to make franchise films like “Annabelle: Creation,” two “Shazam!” movies for DC, and the video game adaptation “Until Dawn.”

Wan pointed to other directors who surfaced first through YouTube before landing deals inside Hollywood’s studio system: “Chronicle” director Josh Trank, “Predator: Badlands” filmmaker Dan Trachtenberg and Bo Burnham.

Still, the YouTube advantage doesn’t mean every detail is taken from follower numbers. Clear said feedback from “Backrooms” fans influenced how Parsons crafted his feature debut. even if it wasn’t the primary driver of Parsons’ creative decisions. Clear said Parsons wanted the film to be more character-driven than his shorts. Clear also said Parsons talked through what he learned from fans’ feedback about what resonated from his work and what made “Backrooms” scary.

“He had these real guideposts of what he wanted the film to feel like and what his audience would and would not want in a feature version of these shorts. ” Clear said. “It taps into this subconscious nostalgia. this idea that it’s almost like deja vu. where you see these empty spaces and feel like you’ve been there before. and there’s something eerie and unsettling about it.”.

That rapid feedback loop is why Wan believes YouTube could keep feeding theatrical talent, and not only in horror, where low-budget capability makes the transition more feasible.

“I think comedy is truly the next wave. because there are young filmmakers and comedians that are making really funny viral shorts on YouTube and TikTok and Instagram and building a significant audience. ” Wan said. “Hollywood is going to have to change its thinking, because studios often want a big star for mainstream comedy. But I really believe the next Adam Sandler or Will Ferrell is going to come from the digital space. and maybe it will even come from someone who also does horror like Curry. because he did sketch comedy on YouTube before ‘Obsession.’”.

The conversation is already splitting into a key disagreement: how much of the success is “internet notoriety,” and how much is simply film quality landing at the right moment.

Insiders at Focus Features said that internet fame wasn’t a major factor in their decision to acquire “Obsession” at TIFF last fall in a $15 million deal. They said they made it a point. as they do at any festival. not to walk in with preconceived notions about who Barker was or what he could deliver for audiences. Instead, the film itself and what happened during reactions at the midnight Toronto screening drove the deal.

The Focus team connected “Obsession” to what they described as its black humor, brutal moral punishment and Inde Navarrette’s showstopping lead performance.

When asked whether Focus is looking more closely for YouTubers with filmmaking chops and aspirations of making a feature. one development executive said high-quality YouTube shorts are part of what they’re looking for. but warned against building the search around whether a creator has significant following numbers.

“Not every YouTube following is the same. ‘Iron Lung’ worked because Markiplier got his fans invested in him as a creator. not just in a single thing he was doing like playing video games in front of a camera. ” the exec said. “I think Kane has more fans of him as a filmmaker now thanks to this movie. but how many people bought a ticket because they were fans of the idea of the Backrooms. which started as a meme?”.

Chris Aronson. former distribution chief at Paramount and 20th Century Fox and current board member for Rentrak. brought a different kind of optimism. He had spent years in studio meetings discussing how teens weren’t going to the movies like they used to. Aronson called Parsons and Barker’s success an opportunity for theaters to build a new wave of frequent moviegoers who can support theater businesses.

But Aronson also cautioned against turning this moment into a perfect comparison to New Hollywood in the 1970s, when filmmakers like Scorsese, Coppola and Lucas shook up a sclerotic film industry.

“Success is always being redefined, not just financially but creatively,” Aronson said. “It’s great that these directors found their way to theaters and found mainstream success. but we shouldn’t assume that everyone who is part of this online world of creators wants the big production deal where Hollywood gives them $50 million for their next movie. There’s something to be said about working independently and staying in a smaller box with your budget where you don’t have to worry about the studio looking over your shoulder.”.

Aronson’s point landed with Mark “Markiplier” Fischbach’s approach. The “Iron Lung” director took a different route to theaters than Barker or Parsons. Fischbach went through self-distribution, grossing $50 million total. While that figure doesn’t match “Obsession” or “Backrooms,” Fischbach and his team got a larger share and maintained ownership.

Fischbach told TheWrap back in February. “I know that ‘Iron Lung’ is a very exceptional case. but I do think that there’s a lot of extra baggage that comes with some of those deals that makes it so that everything becomes so high risk that it has to have high reward and success. or it’s just a meteoric failure.”.

“I think that there’s a world where. if independent filmmakers are able to actually get it into theaters a little bit easier. and they’re able to negotiate on a smaller basis. but with the internet. try to cultivate their own little concentrated fan bases. then they could turn a profit. because the stakes were never so high that a studio needed to have their bottom line matched. ” Fischbach added.

The immediate takeaway for Hollywood is clear: “Backrooms” and “Obsession” have captured attention because they fit established measures of success. But as audiences and films become more tailored in a post-monoculture era, the definition of success may shift right alongside them.

One next test is already queued—Fathom’s “The Amazing Digital Circus: The Last Act. ” a theatrical presentation of the final episode of the hit YouTube animated psychological dramedy series produced by indie studio Glitch. The premiere is scheduled later this month. Because it is a series finale, the film is projected for a $10-12 million weekend.

Glitch’s move is their first attempt to bring their online animated shows—starting with “Digital Circus”—to theaters. The studio also includes the recently launched viral hit “Gameoverse” and the upcoming webcomic adaptation “Lackadaisy” in its wider push. Glitch is aiming for fan gatherings comparable to releases of TV series like “The Chosen” or series finales like “Stranger Things.”.

Unlike those shows, “Digital Circus” comes entirely from YouTube. The finale will release on the website two weeks after theaters, on June 19.

If it lands, it could become another path for independent creators to reach the big screen outside the traditional Hollywood system.

YouTube may be turning more filmmakers like Kane Parsons toward legacy backlots, but it’s not funnelling everyone into the old model. Like “Backrooms,” the new pipeline is still being built in real time—and no one, at this stage, can say exactly what it will become.

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