YouTube Creators Are Taking Over Horror — How Obsession Made $74M and Backrooms Drops This Friday

YouTube Creators Are Taking Over Horror — How Obsession Made $74M and Backrooms Drops This Friday

In a year absolutely stacked with sequels, franchise tentpoles, and reboots of reboots, the biggest story in Hollywood right now isn't coming from Marvel, Warner Bros., or Universal. It's coming from YouTube. Two internet creators are on the verge of becoming the most talked-about directors of 2026 — and both of them happen to work in horror.

Obsession: The $750,000 Film That Outearned Blockbusters

Let's start with the numbers, because they're frankly ridiculous. Obsession, directed by 26-year-old former YouTuber Curry Barker in his feature debut, was shot in just 20 days on a budget of $750,000. As of late May, it has grossed $58.5 million domestically and $74 million worldwide. That's a return of nearly 10,000% — making it one of the most profitable films of the entire decade.

But the real shocker? The film actually grew in its second weekend, earning $22 million from 2,655 theaters — a 30% increase over its already-solid $17.2 million opening. Comscore analyst Paul Dergarabedian called it "really unheard of," noting he'd never seen a movie jump like that in weekend two during his three-decade career.

What makes Obsession even more impressive is the reception. It scored an "A-" CinemaScore and sits at 94% on Rotten Tomatoes. Only five other horror films since 2019 — including Zach Cregger's Weapons and Neon's Longlegs — have matched that CinemaScore. Distributed by Focus Features, the R-rated psychological thriller follows a hopeless romantic named Bear who makes a Faustian bargain to win the heart of his crush, Nikki.

It joins a growing list of original horror hits that have defied the genre's usual opening-weekend-drop pattern, alongside Blumhouse's M3GAN and The Black Phone, Cregger's Barbarian, and A24's Talk to Me.

Backrooms: A24's Next Big Bet Opens This Friday

Now, just two weeks later, A24 is banking that the YouTube-to-Hollywood pipeline isn't a fluke. Backrooms — the feature directorial debut of 20-year-old YouTuber Kane Parsons — hits theaters this Friday, May 29, 2026, and is already tracking for a $20–30 million opening weekend.

Backrooms is based on Parsons' viral YouTube series, which itself grew out of the infamous "liminal space" creepypasta that originated on a 4chan thread years ago. The film stars Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave) as Clark, a furniture store owner who discovers a strange doorway in his showroom's basement that leads into an endless, nightmare version of reality. Renate Reinsve (The Worst Person in the World) also stars, and the film is produced by horror heavyweight James Wan (The Conjuring) and filmmaker Osgood Perkins.

The film has already generated serious early buzz. It could make Kane Parsons the youngest director ever to lead the box office, potentially breaking a record once held by Steven Spielberg. Actor Mark Duplass has even publicly defended Parsons against online critics questioning his age and experience.

The YouTube-to-Hollywood Pipeline Is Real

What's happening with Obsession and Backrooms isn't an accident — it's a pattern. Horror has always been the genre most willing to take risks on young voices, and now internet creators with built-in audiences are proving they can deliver the same level of craft as film school graduates.

For Curry Barker and Kane Parsons, YouTube was their film school. Barker built an audience with short-form content before Focus Features handed him the keys to a theatrical release. Parsons turned a 4chan creepypasta into a visual language so compelling that A24, James Wan, and Chiwetel Ejiofor all bought in.

With Obsession already at $74 million worldwide and Backrooms opening this Friday, one thing is clear: the future of horror isn't just coming from Hollywood. It's coming from your screen — and then onto the big screen.