Gen Z and the movies

Summary

Pop Culture Happy Hour (NPR)

Episode: Gen Z and the Movies
Date: July 7, 2026

---

Episode Overview

This episode explores the rise of Gen Z as the dominant moviegoing demographic, focusing on their driving force behind recent horror box office hits—Obsession and Backrooms—both helmed by Gen Z directors. Host Brittany Luce (for “It's Been a Minute,” shared on PCHH) leads an energetic discussion with Sam Adams (Slate) and Rihanna Cruz (entertainment journalist, Gen Z member). The conversation analyzes what makes a “Gen Z movie,” the YouTuber-to-filmmaker pipeline, changes in moviegoing habits, the cultural impact of horror, digital aesthetics, and the generational ethos driving Gen Z’s cinematic tastes.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Box Office Success and Initial Impressions

[00:34–04:10]

• Two indie horror films, Obsession and Backrooms, have shattered box office expectations, with Gen Z driving their success.
  • Obsession made more than three times its budget; Backrooms is A24’s biggest opening.
• Hosts share split first impressions:
  • Rihanna Cruz: Initially loved Obsession, but appreciation waned; Backrooms grew on her over time.
  • Sam Adams: Team Obsession—praised its character work and lead performance (Indy Navarretti as Nikki), though he found Backrooms "an incredible vibe" with a messy script and odd protagonist choice.

Notable Quote:

“I know you said we’re not picking sides, but I’m definitely Team Backrooms.” – Rihanna Cruz (01:53)

Why Gen Z is Flocking to Horror Films

[04:10–06:25]

• Gen Z comprises the majority of opening-weekend audiences for these films.
• Films have easy-to-understand premises and strong social media campaigns ("good marketing, especially on social media").
• Gen Z wants to participate in online discourse:

  “It lands really well with audiences that want to be in on the discourse... People are showing up because they want a take and they want a comment.” – Rihanna Cruz (04:36)

• Horror is immersive in theaters, offering a collective, emotionally charged experience—something especially craved post-pandemic.

Notable Moment:
Sam notes the shift from "Friday night by default" to going out for specific, communal experiences aligned with horror:

“The theatrical experience for horror is really special. That feeling of being part of a group—especially a generation that came up during the pandemic—is craving that collective experience.” – Sam Adams (05:55)

The YouTuber-to-Director Pipeline

[06:07–07:47]

• Both Obsession's Curry Barker (26) and Backrooms' Kane Parsons (20) started as YouTubers, representing a generational shift.
• These films emerge from "discoverable" spaces rather than corporate marketing, giving Gen Z a sense of ownership.
• The pipeline is growing (Chris Stuckman, RackaRacka & Talk to Me):

  “Audiences feel a little bit of ownership over these creators. There's a parasocial relationship, especially with Backrooms.” – Rihanna Cruz (07:11)

• Backrooms originated as a viral YouTube “creepypasta”—a Gen Z horror entry point.

Social Media, Moviegoing Culture & Value

[10:32–13:42]

• Gen Z is now the largest audience at movie theaters (per Fandango & comScore).
• Social media, platforms like Letterboxd, and subscription services (AMC A-List) gamify, socialize, and make moviegoing cost-effective.

  “Letterboxd gamifies movie watching—it rewards you the more movies you watch... It shows off to your friends how cultured and tapped in you are.” – Rihanna Cruz (11:03)

• Rising costs elsewhere make the $15 theater ticket an appealing social value.

What Makes a "Gen Z Movie"?

[13:42–16:33]

• Gen Z movies often feature:
  1. Members of Gen Z (“They have to feature members of Gen Z in some capacity”).
  2. A commitment to exploring "the digital aesthetic landscape."
• Dramæ, featuring Zendaya (a Gen Z cultural figure), is cited as a Gen Z film due to online community dynamics and digital obsession.

  “Backrooms and Obsession are very doomer vibes. That’s definitely part of the Gen Z movie aesthetic.” – Rihanna Cruz (14:28)

• Digital abstraction, online community influences, and "doomerism" (a sense of hopelessness or existential dread) are core.

Digital Nostalgia, Aesthetics, and Existentialism

[16:33–19:12]

• Backrooms is viewed as digital nostalgia for Gen Z—“Like they're excavating a world they never inhabited.”
• Sam connects film aesthetics to contemporary feelings:

  “There’s a total evacuation of any meaning from the world... These are worlds in which there’s just kind of no pathway to success or happiness anywhere. The world is just fundamentally broken.” – Sam Adams (17:41)

• Rihanna connects this “doomerism” and lack of hope directly to Gen Z’s worldview and lived experience online.

The Role of Horror for Young Filmmakers

[19:42–20:12]

• Horror is one of few film genres accessible for young, unknown directors without established stars.
• Sam posits that if young directors were funded to make other genres, perhaps those would reflect more hope.

Diversity, Access & Hollywood’s Takeaways

[20:12–21:55]

• Current pipeline favors white, male, online creators—echoes of Millennial online-to-Hollywood transitions (Issa Rae, Quinta Brunson).
• Calls for more diverse Gen Z perspectives as Hollywood’s attention shifts to capitalize on the trend.

  “Hollywood tends to learn the least disruptive lesson they can from things like this. So in this case, it's like, get me the next young white guy with a big YouTube presence. The lesson I hope they would take is: just let younger people represent their experience.” – Sam Adams (21:04)

• The real breakthrough lies in honest, authentic stories from younger generations, not just digital celebrity.

---

Memorable Quotes

• “We kind of live in horror-maxxing times, which I’m obsessed with.” — Rihanna Cruz (02:08)
• “[Movies like Obsession and Backrooms] are something you can kind of chew on for days and weeks afterwards, which…for 15 bucks, gives you weeks of entertainment.” — Sam Adams (13:32)
• “I think there’s two things going on…Gen Z have to be featured in the movie…and a devotion to exploring the digital aesthetic landscape.” — Rihanna Cruz (14:28)
• “If you’re a certain age…you’ve just never known a world where people are rewarded for doing good. And I think that really runs through these films.” — Sam Adams (17:41)
• “I would totally watch a Gen Z rom com.” — Brittany Luce (20:12)

---

Timestamps for Key Segments

• [00:34–04:10] – Panel's first reactions to Obsession and Backrooms
• [04:10–06:07] – Why Gen Z is showing up for these movies, horror’s communal value
• [06:07–07:47] – The YouTuber-to-director pipeline and Gen Z creator “ownership”
• [10:32–12:18] – Social media (Letterboxd) and subscription services drive Gen Z moviegoing
• [13:42–16:33] – How to define a “Gen Z movie,” characteristics and sensibilities
• [16:33–19:12] – Digital nostalgia, generational doom, and film aesthetics
• [19:42–20:12] – Horror as a gateway genre for Gen Z filmmakers
• [20:12–21:55] – Diversity, Hollywood’s response, and future of Gen Z-driven cinema

---

Episode Tone & Style

The conversation is witty, fast-moving, and robustly informed by first-person and generational perspectives, combining critical analysis, humor, and candor about pop culture trends. The guests balance sharp cultural critique with enthusiastic engagement in the ongoing discourse around movies and Gen Z identity.

---

For a listener seeking an up-to-date, smart, and personable breakdown of how Gen Z is reinventing moviegoing and the horror genre, this episode delivers a rich, nuanced discussion shaped by those living the trends themselves.

Transcript

[NPR Sponsor Announcer]

This message comes from NPR sponsor Carvana. Carvana makes car buying easy 100% online prices down to the penny, delivered to your door. Why make car buying hard when it could be easy? Visit Carvana.com today. Terms may apply.

[Stephen Thompson]

Two big horror films, Obsession and Backrooms, just smashed all box office expectations. Backrooms is A24's biggest opening in the studio's history and Obsession made more than three times its small budget. So much of their success has been driven by Gen Z. Gen Z is now the biggest movie going demographic according to a couple of recent surveys by Fandango and comScore. And not for nothing, both of these movies were directed by Gen Z filmmakers. What makes a movie a Gen Z movie? I'm Stephen Thompson. Today on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour, we are bringing you an episode of It's Been a Minute. Host Brittany Luce sat down with Sam Adams, staff writer at Slate, and Rihanna Cruz, entertainment journalist and critic. Rihanna is also a member of Gen Z. Here's Britney.

[Brittany Luce]

Hello. Hello, I'm Brittany Luce and you're listening to It's Been a Minute from npr, a show about what's going on in culture and why it doesn't happen by accident. Rihanna. Sam, welcome to It's Been a Minute.

[Rihanna Cruz]

So happy to be here. Thank you for having us.

[Sam Adams]

Yeah, thank you.

[Brittany Luce]

Okay, I'm excited to talk about this. I want to talk about Backrooms and Obsession. Like these movies have done huge numbers. Huge numbers. What did you think about them? Rihanna, we'll start with you.

[Rihanna Cruz]

It's interesting. I've had kind of inverse reactions to both of those movies where I was in the theater for Obsession. I was like, this is pretty good. And then over time I've started to like it less. And I've had the opposite experience with Backrooms where I saw it and I was like, all right, this is okay. And the more I sit and think about it, the more I like it. I like a lot of horror movies.

[Brittany Luce]

Me too.

[Rihanna Cruz]

We kind of live in horror maxing times, which I'm obsessed with. But I think of the two, I'm definitely team back rooms. I know you would. We don't want to pick sides, but that's the side that I'm coming down on. I gotta say.

[Brittany Luce]

I gotta say I'm inclined to agree with you. I'm inclined to agree with you. Backrooms I saw initially and I was like, it was decent. And then over time I've grown to appreciate it a little bit more. And then I saw Obsession yesterday and I was like my husband and I were leaving. He was like, is this a moment where we're like, I'm too old to understand what's going on. But what did you think, Sam? You saw both of these movies, Backrooms and Obsession. What did you think?

[Sam Adams]

Well, since we're not picking sides, Team Obsession. Yeah. Backrooms, I think, is an incredible vibe. Like, I love the environment of it, which is what the director Kane Parsons kind of comes out of, the sort of literal backrooms in it. I think the script, which he did not write, is kind of a mess.

[Brittany Luce]

There's like several monologues coming from a middle aged man.

[Sam Adams]

Yes.

[Brittany Luce]

And I'm like, have you met any middle aged man before?

[Sam Adams]

Right. I mean, it's like you've got this wunderkind and someone decided that the best protagonist for his movie was like a 48 year old divorced guy. I think that's a bit of a category error right there. Whereas Curry Barker, who made Obsession, I think that's like, it's an imperfect movie, but I think some parts of it really work. It's like there's so many horror movies you see now that just feel like they're kind of grinding their gears in the first 10, 20 minutes until you start getting to the kills and the premise is established. And I think this is a movie that actually cares about the characters and has, especially in Indy Navarretti, who plays Nikki, I think has a really stellar effective performance at the center of it, which has been so key to just the one viral clip of her going sort of, no, no, no, I'm not even gonna try.

[Rihanna Cruz]

No, no, no, no, no, no, no,

[Brittany Luce]

no, don't do that.

[Sam Adams]

That was so key. Just in my experience of kind of watching people warm to the movie online, that really seemed to get people's attention.

[Brittany Luce]

Huh? You know, one of the things that's interesting is that according to The Hollywood Reporter, 75% of Obsession's audience was 18 to 34 through the second weekend, which is mostly Gen Z. Wow. And over half of Backroom's first weekend audience was under 25, according to Indiewire.

[Rihanna Cruz]

Yeah, this makes sense to me.

[Brittany Luce]

Yeah. I mean, like Gen Z, they're showing up for these films. Why do you think that is? I mean, you say it makes sense to you. Rihanna, why do you think that is?

[Rihanna Cruz]

Well, I think both of these movies have been massive cultural moments. I think both of them have been founded on premises that are easy to convey. You know, I think the marketing for both of those movies has been good, especially on social media. Right. And I think it's. It Lands really well with audiences that want to be in on the discourse a little bit. Like, I've seen a lot of people talking about these films on platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels and Twitter. It's interesting to me how many people are showing up because they want a take and they want a comment. Right. And I think there's also an element that, like, horror is very easy to consume. It doesn't really ask much of its audience. You know, you kind of just show up and in the case of Backroom, specifically, like, be immersed in the vibe.

[Sam Adams]

You know, when I was growing up, it was like, it's Friday night. What movie are we going to see? I don't think that's how younger people are approaching it. It's not the default thing anymore. So they are picking the movies they want to see. Not just based on, like, do I want to see this thing? But like, what is going to be an experience to like see this in the theater. And horror is the genre where you most feel like you're in a crowd. People are like screaming and gasping and reacting along with you. And it's just like the theatrical experience for horror is really special. Like this feeling of being part of a group is something especially a generation that is coming up during the pandemic is really craving that sort of collective experience.

[Brittany Luce]

That's a really, really, really good point. Obsession was directed by Cory Barker, who is 26, and Backrooms was directed by Kane Parsons, who is 20. Both of them started out as YouTubers. What do you think about the Gen Z YouTuber to director pipeline happening with these films?

[Sam Adams]

Super Mario Galaxy just crossed the billion dollar mark, so it's not like everything has changed in Hollywood, but it certainly feels like a moment for these particular kind of movies. I think Gen Z is responding to something that feels like a little bit more theirs. Not just that the filmmakers are in their 20s, but also that this is not something that has been shoved down their throat by a major corporation and feels like something they're being ordered to see. It feels like something that is possible for them to discover. And I just think that's really intoxicating. And it's a feeling that's been missing from movie going for a long time.

[Rihanna Cruz]

Over the past few years, there's been a lot of the YouTuber to Director Pipeline. I'm thinking of Chris Stuckman and Shelby Oakes. I'm thinking of the Philippoos and Talk to Me and Bring her Back.

[Brittany Luce]

Such a good movie, great flicks.

[Rihanna Cruz]

Not Shelby Oakes. The other ones. But I think there is something to the fact that audiences feel, yeah, a little bit of ownership over these creators. You know, there's a parasocial relationship element, I think, especially when it comes to Backrooms, because I hate to call it a property, but it is like a thing on YouTube. Audiences like myself watched it. Backrooms was based on a creepypasta, which is like a meme. If a meme was scary, yeah, a Gen Z way of engaging with horror material.

[Brittany Luce]

We're gonna take a quick break, but first, you all know I really love hearing from you, and many of you keep leaving the kindest notes for me. In the reviews and comments, one listener mentioned that this podcast is the only way to start their day. Forget coffee. Another wrote that if this show is talking about a topic that that story is worth paying attention to. Listen, I work hard to have my ears to the ground for you, and I am so grateful to all of you for always coming back four times a week. It would also mean so much to me if you could rate and review the show wherever you listen. It helps new listeners discover the show and allows this community we're building to keep growing. Join the IBAM team, rate and review this show right now. Thank you so much. Coming up after the break.

[Sam Adams]

I saw something on the Internet the other day where someone was saying if you're in a certain age, like in your mid-20s, you've just never known a world where people are rewarded for doing good. And I think that feels like something that really runs through in these films.

[Brittany Luce]

Stick around.

[NPR Sponsor Announcer]

This message comes from NPR sponsor Carvana. Carvana believes selling your car should be easy. Get a real offer down to the penny picked up from your driveway. You may keep waiting for a catch. There isn't one. Sell [e-mail] pickup fees may apply. This message comes from Grainger. This is the story of the 1. As a maintenance supervisor at a manufacturing facility, he knows keeping the line up and running is a top priority. That's why he chooses Grainger, because when a drive belt gets damaged, Grainger makes it easy to find the exact specs for the replacement product he needs and next day delivery helps ensure he'll have everything in place and running like clockwork. Call 1-800-GRAINGER Click grainger.com or just stop by Grainger for the ones who get it done. This message comes from Wise, the smart way to manage your money around the world. With WISE, you can send, spend and receive money in over 40 currencies at the mid market rate. Learn more at wise.com Ts and Cs

[Podcast Sponsor Announcer]

apply support for this podcast and the following message come from Strawberry Me. Be honest. Are you happy with your job? Are you stuck in a job you've outgrown or never wanted in the first place? Are your reasons for staying really just excuses for not leaving? Let a career coach from Strawberry Me help you get unstuck. Discover the benefits of having a dedicated career coach in your Corner, and get 50% off your first coaching session at Strawberry Me. SLNPR.

[Brittany Luce]

Even before these films came out, according to a couple recent surveys by Com Score and Fandango, Gen Z is now the biggest moviegoing audience. I think for a long time, Hollywood was worried that that wouldn't be the case. But I wonder, what is bringing Gen Z to movie theaters?

[Rihanna Cruz]

I think it's a lot of things. I think, again, social media plays a big part of it. People want to be in on the discourse.

[Brittany Luce]

That's how obsession got me, because I was like, everyone's talking about. I'm like, I want to talk too. I want to be included.

[Rihanna Cruz]

Well, yeah, exactly. And I think Gen Z is a demographic that uses the platform letterboxd a lot.

[Brittany Luce]

Ah, yes, letterboxd.

[Rihanna Cruz]

You know, letterboxd gamifies movie watching. It rewards you the more movies you watch.

[Brittany Luce]

Yeah, I love logging my watches into letterboxd.

[Rihanna Cruz]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It shows off to your friends how cultured and tapped in you are. You know, there's something really satisfying about seeing your movie stats go up. It's a social media platform for movies, and I think that has a lot to do with it. I also think that, like, the idea of these movie subscription services like amc. A list turns the movie, which was previously in my eyes, like a solo experience, into something easy that friend groups can do.

[Brittany Luce]

Oh, so you're an A lister. Okay.

[Rihanna Cruz]

Oh, you know, I'm an A lister. It's for a lot of people, cost effective. I see a lot of movies with a lot of different people. I have a lot of people on my A list Entourage. Like, it's a social element, but baked into the service.

[Brittany Luce]

What is A list? Entourage.

[Rihanna Cruz]

Basically all of your friends who also have a list. You can send each other links and, like, add each other on the app so they all populate in your app right when you're buying a ticket. And it's very, very easy to book tickets for your friends.

[Brittany Luce]

Oh, that makes sense. Sam, what do you think? How do you think Gen Z's become the largest moviegoing audience?

[Sam Adams]

I mean, I wonder if one of the things that's maybe going on in this particular moment is sort of like a long term rant of mine, is that people have been complaining for years that movies are too expensive. Right. I think what really happened is that people stopped valuing that experience.

[Brittany Luce]

100% agree.

[Sam Adams]

So it wasn't that they cost too much. It's that they were like 15 bucks for a movie when I can wait for it. Why would I pay that? Everything else is so much more expensive. Now that I think maybe part of it is people are coming back around to, like, there's not a lot of other things you can do except for, like, go for a walk. That involves like paying 15 bucks to do something collective for two hours. Like, you can't get two beers for that in most cities.

[Rihanna Cruz]

No.

[Sam Adams]

So I think, and especially if you have something like, you know, a subscription service, which also they often, like, discount your popcorn and your soda and whatever. Like, I think it actually is just sort of like a good value for money proposition on top of everything else. And I think part of what's going on with these movies too, not just obsession and backrooms, but also like the drama a couple months ago, which was another movie that seemed to be a real hit with this demographic, is these are movies that people are, like, discussing. They're something that you can kind of chew on for days and weeks afterwards, which again is like, spend 15 bucks, go to a theater for two hours, and you have like, weeks of, I guess, entertainment.

[Brittany Luce]

I just saw the drama a week ago. Gen Z Members of the IBAM team have let me know that that was a Gen Z movie. And after I saw it, I was like, oh, I totally get the sensibility. I 100% agree. I think there are certain movies that are of certain generations, regardless of who made them. Right. High Fidelity feels very Gen X to me. Mean girls made by Gen X person, but very millennial for sure. Although I think that everything everywhere all at once is perhaps like, more apt example of like, what a millennial film really is. Because of, like, it just has this sort of like, millennial Hope core kind of vibe running through it.

[Rihanna Cruz]

Hope core, definitely Millennial.

[Brittany Luce]

Yeah, exactly. And like the millennial directors, it just feels like the generational fingerprint is really on there. What do you think makes a Gen, like, what do you think about that?

[Rihanna Cruz]

Backrooms and obsession are very doomer vibes. That's definitely part of the Gen Z movie aesthetic. I think as a member of Gen Z, I think there's two things going on, right? And it's an and or situation. It's it's that members of Gen Z have to be featured in the movie. I think that's why the drama in part is a Gen Z movie.

[Brittany Luce]

I mean, it's just Zendaya and she's on the cusp, right? I think she's technically a millennial, but only just by a few months. Though, of course, more cultural she might be Gen Z. Either one of us could claim her.

[Sam Adams]

Robert Pattinson keeps insisting in interviews that it's he's Gen Z. It's sort of like a Ryan joke.

[Podcast Sponsor Announcer]

Do you wish you were a Gen Z? You're not Gen Z, you're a millennial. No, you're a millennial. I believe that you believe that you're

[Rihanna Cruz]

Gen Z. I am Gen Z. What year were you born? It doesn't matter. I think Gen Z movies have to feature members of Gen Z in some capacity and also have a devotion to exploring the digital aesthetic landscape that we find ourselves in. I don't think obsession does this. Part of my issue with the movie is that screens are kind of non existent for these characters. But I don't know. I think that's why the drama to me lands, because it features Zendaya and also it has a very uniquely Gen Z experience of like, being on the computer too much and getting really involved in like, scary communities online. Not saying that happened to me, but I saw that happen to people that I know where. When she was talking in the movie about, you know, being obsessed with school shootings, like, I would come across people like that on Tumblr when I was a teenager and be like, whoa, this is really freaky. It's something that could actually happen. And so that's why I think, like, the two things are members of Gen Z and or digital aesthetic where backrooms is made by a Gen Z director, but all the characters are not Gen Z. And yet it focuses on, like, digital abstraction.

[Brittany Luce]

I didn't even think about that. You're right. Like.

[Rihanna Cruz]

Well, because we live in a very digital age, you know, as Gen Z. Like, we're the first generation to grow up fully online.

[Brittany Luce]

That part makes sense. But I'm talking about what you said with backrooms where it felt Gen Z because it's got a kind of digitally abstracted aesthetic. I mean, of course, like, canonically it's taking place in 1990, so no one in the film can be Gen Z. But to me, it's always kind of fun to see people who are not even born in the 1900s in general try to imagine what it was like back then. Yeah, it's almost like, I don't know, someone's trying to go back through, like, when people were obsessed with egyptology in the 1920s, and they were, like, trying to excavate and figure out what ancient Egyptians were doing. That's kind of how this movie felt where it's like a person who grew up around probably not too many shopping malls and. Or maybe saw a lot of vacant strip malls and.

[Rihanna Cruz]

Yeah.

[Brittany Luce]

Is trying to sort of like, make sense of, like, why that feels so horrifying and what was going on there. It's funny to me as a person who likes. I'm old enough to remember people shopping in these places, but, like, why would Kane Parsons. Kane Parsons was not born when people were shopping in these places. So it was kind of interesting to see through the lens of, like, a period film what horror there is to be mined in sort of like thinking about the ruins of the world. That was.

[Sam Adams]

I mean, one of the sort of recurring explanations in backrooms that Chiwetel Ejiofor's character has is. It's like if you described a dog to someone who didn't know what a dog was and then had them draw a picture of that thing in the backrooms, which is set in, you know, sort of shopping malls and these public spaces that are kind of devoid of all meaning. One of the things that I think links, certainly the movies that seem to be hitting with Gen Z this year is this total evacuation of any meaning from the world. There are rules, but they don't work anymore. Even in Obsession, it's like the rules like, take this stick, break it, wish for what you want, you'll get it. And bear, in theory, does what the instructions on the package tell him to do, and it does not work out for him. And so these are worlds in which there's just kind of no pathway to success or happiness anywhere. The world is just fundamentally broken. I saw something on the Internet the other day where someone was saying, if you're a certain age in your mid-20s, you've just never known a world where people are rewarded for doing good. And I think that feels like something that really runs through the sense of the world you're seeing in these films.

[Rihanna Cruz]

Yeah, that's what I mean about the doomerism of it. Right. Like, I think that's the dominant vibe that Gen Z finds ourselves in. It's interesting to see that conveyed in movies. And I don't think that there has been anything to accurately portray that hopelessness so far. So I think that's a really great point, Sam.

[Brittany Luce]

One of the things about Obsession is that the film kind of starts off with a group of four friends who all work at the same job that none of them are fulfilled by or seem to particularly like. They're all kind of lonely in their own individual ways. And they don't share with each other emotionally, as you think that friends might. They're kind of like suffering in silence, even though they're spending a lot of time together. And what hope for happiness that a couple of these characters have, it gets snuffed out by the events of the film.

[Rihanna Cruz]

Right.

[Sam Adams]

I do wonder also how much of this vibe that's coming through is also. Because horror is one of the few places that a young filmmaker who doesn't have a movie star on board can make an impression and get an audience. Like the fact that Curry Barker was a sort of online sketch comedian, but when he wanted to make features, he obviously knew that horror was the place to break in. I wonder if you gave a Gen Z filmmaker $10 million like Kane Parsons got for backrooms to make a romantic comedy or something, Maybe it wouldn't seem quite so hopeless.

[Brittany Luce]

I mean, I would totally watch a Gen Z rom com. Like, one of the coolest things for me has been seeing through different pieces of art made by members of Gen Z how they're feeling about their experience of the world. But I'd like to see more perspectives on it. Like, even the YouTuber to film director pipeline, like, it's still very white and male. I'll be curious to see if that or how that opens up for Gen Z. I mean, for millennials, we had versions of that. Like, Abbott elementary is due to the success of Quinta Brunson. She started out doing online videos, as did Issa Rae, who turned an online video series into basically an HBO show. I mean, it was a different kind of era for Hollywood to a certain degree, both in terms of diversity and in terms of trying to mine the Internet and video content for potential new stars. I'm hoping to see maybe another cycle of that and some new voices. But Hollywood is obviously paying attention to the success of these movies, right?

[Sam Adams]

Hollywood tends to learn the least disruptive lesson they can from things like this. So in this case, it's like, get me the next young white guy with a big YouTube presence. And that's one way to go in this. But the lesson I hope they would take from these is just let younger people kind of represent their experience. I think there's stuffy movies just about characters in their 20s doing anything that looks like real life or resembles the way they see the world. And I don't think that it has to come from YouTube. And Curry Barker had a YouTube following. It's not enormous. It's not like the 83 million people who watched the Backrooms video. It's just enough to give them a leg up. And the people are responding to this because it's a good movie and it has characters in the their twenties whose lives feel like the lives of people in their 20s. And I hope someone, some smart person will take that lesson from it instead.

[Brittany Luce]

Sam Rihanna, thank you so much. This has been such an enlightening conversation. Y' all brought up so many things I hadn't even thought of. So thank you both so much for joining me.

[Sam Adams]

Thank you.

[Rihanna Cruz]

Happy to be here.

[Brittany Luce]

That was Sam Adams, staff writer at Slate, and Rihanna Cruz, entertainment journalist and critic. This episode of It's Been a Minute was Produced by Liam McBain. Engineering support came from Tiffany Vera Castro. This episode was edited by Nina Pothuk. Our supervising producer is Cher Vincent. Our executive producer is Barton Girdwood. Our VP of programming is Yolanda Sanguini. All right, that's all for this episode of It's Been a Minute. From npr, I'm Brittany Luce. Talk soon.

[Podcast Sponsor Announcer]

This message comes from Prolon. Want to look and feel your best this spring? Prolon's five Day Fasting Mimicking Diet is a clinically developed nutrition program with the goal of promoting fat loss while protecting lean body mass. Developed at USC's Longevity Institute, it aims to assist the body in entering a fasting like state that helps reset metabolism, target visceral fat and support healthy metabolic markers. Get 15% off plus a bonus gift when you [e-mail] NPR this message comes from Mint Mobile. If you're tired of spending hundreds on big wireless bills, bogus fees and free perks, Mint Mobile is for you. Shop [e-mail] Switch taxes and fees extra. See Mint Mobile for details. This message comes from IXL. IXL's level up diagnostic gives immediate benchmark results along with personalized action plans that link directly to IXL's skill practice. [e-mail] NPR.