‘Backrooms’ Turns an Online Obsession Into Box-Office Gold

Summary

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Podcast Summary: 'Backrooms’ Turns an Online Obsession Into Box-Office Gold

The Journal. – June 12, 2026
Hosts: Jessica Mendoza, Ryan Knutson
Featured Guest: Ben Fritz, WSJ entertainment industry reporter

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Episode Overview

This episode explores how the horror film Backrooms, rooted in Internet lore and Gen Z culture, has become a surprising box-office phenomenon. The discussion delves into the broader impact of Gen Z-driven, internet-native films on Hollywood, highlighting how their success is signaling a shift from traditional franchise-based blockbusters to more authentic, digitally-inspired storytelling. The hosts and guest Ben Fritz analyze what Backrooms and its peer, Obsession, reveal about changing audience tastes, Hollywood’s recent struggles, and what could be the dawn of a new Gen Z cinematic era.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Gen Z’s Return to Theaters

• Personal Entry Point: Ben Fritz shares how his teenage son’s obsession with Backrooms alerted him to the film’s cultural significance among Gen Z.
  • "This wasn't just like, oh, this is a cool movie. This is like, you know, a big screen expansion of this whole mythology that has been really meaningful to him for several years." — Ben Fritz [00:44]
• Gen Z audiences, historically tough for Hollywood to engage, are flocking to Backrooms, making it one of the year’s most profitable films.
  • "We definitely are watching the dawn of the Gen Z movie era." — Ben Fritz [02:30]

2. The Internet Origins of Backrooms

• Backrooms began as a single eerie photograph on 4chan in 2019, sparking online discussions, memes, and eventually a full-blown mythology across platforms like Reddit, YouTube, TikTok, and Roblox.
  • "People were...using it to express this feeling, I think, of ennui and feeling lost in the world and feeling kind of very exposed but not understanding what was happening." — Ben Fritz [05:39]
• This sense of uncanny dislocation resonated especially during the pandemic, making the mythos particularly relevant to Gen Z.

3. From Viral Video to Box Office Hit

• Kane Parsons, a 16-year-old Gen Z YouTuber, began creating creepypasta-style found footage videos based on Backrooms. These videos’ wild popularity brought Hollywood calling.
  • "It feels like it's intentionally amateurish...like the Blair Witch Project. Except instead of in the dark in a forest, it's inside in a brightly lit room." — Ben Fritz [06:53]
• Parsons signed with indie studio A24, resulting in a $10M film that outperformed all expectations, grossing over $230M globally two weeks post-release.
  • "A24 said that the movie has made about $230 million globally, making it the company's highest grossing film to date." — Jessica Mendoza [08:06]

4. Peer Phenomenon: Obsession

• Obsession, another low-budget horror film created by 26-year-old director Curry Barker, transitioned from viral online content to film.
  • "He got financing, he made it for $750,000." — Ben Fritz [09:07]
• Despite a modest opening, the film’s popularity surged week over week — a rarity in box office trends.
  • "The only way I can think of to describe it is the movie has gone viral like an Internet video." — Ben Fritz [10:11]
• Obsession has earned nearly $250M, strengthening the trend.

5. Why Gen Z Responds

• These films are perceived as authentic — "for and by" Gen Z, grounded in their digital experience and cultural references.
  • "These are the first big successful movies that are made by Gen Z talent who came out of Internet culture...I don't think a millennial could have made these movies." — Ben Fritz [11:48]
• The participatory nature and found footage aesthetics echo Gen Z’s online lives.

6. The State of Hollywood & What’s Next

• Traditional movie franchises (e.g., Marvel, Fast & Furious) have lost steam; “feel good,” nostalgia-driven films (Project Hail Mary, Devil Wears Prada 2) have done well, but Backrooms and Obsession represent genuine change.
  • "There’s been this huge mindset change in, honestly, just the past month in Hollywood...now it's like, no, this doesn't have to be competition. This can be a place where we find talent, and that'll actually get Gen Z off their phones and bring them into theaters." — Ben Fritz [15:23]
• The industry is newly optimistic, seeing digital-native horror as both a creative and commercial lifeline.

7. Is This a Lasting Shift?

• While box office numbers are rising (possibly nearing pre-pandemic levels), the hosts caution it’s too soon to declare the death of blockbusters.
  • "It's always a bad idea to say a certain thing is over and now a certain thing is everything in Hollywood, right? But it is definitely true that low budget horror born out of digital culture is something that we're going to see more and more of, and that clearly can be massively successful." — Ben Fritz [17:51]
• The surprise success of Internet-driven Gen Z horror is helping restore industry optimism.
  • "People just felt like they were sort of like the last survivors, you know, in a dying industry...this has spawned a lot of optimism that Hollywood can make things that are commercially successful and culturally impactful." — Ben Fritz [18:34]

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• "We definitely are watching the dawn of the Gen Z movie era." — Ben Fritz [02:30]
• "People were sort of using it to express this feeling, I think, of ennui and feeling lost in the world..." — Ben Fritz [05:39]
• "These are the first big successful movies that are made by Gen Z talent who came out of Internet culture and speaks very much to that culture." — Ben Fritz [11:48]
• "The only way I can think of to describe it is the movie has gone viral like an Internet video." — Ben Fritz [10:11]
• "If you love movies, this is...a win for at least to some extent. This is a win for originality, and this is a win for movies being like a place that people can really enjoy themselves and feel good." — Ben Fritz [16:35]
• "This has spawned a lot of optimism that Hollywood can make things that are commercially successful and culturally impactful...there’s a promising path forward for the movie business for the first time in a long time." — Ben Fritz [18:34]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:05–01:59: Introduction, Ben Fritz’s son’s fandom, Gen Z’s moviegoing shift
• 04:13–05:39: The origins and online spread of the Backrooms mythos
• 06:13–07:49: Kane Parsons’ YouTube series, rise to A24 film deal
• 08:06–10:23: Box office performance, rise of Obsession, virality of both films
• 11:37–12:13: What makes these movies uniquely Gen Z
• 13:29–14:39: State of box office—classic franchises v. new trends
• 15:15–16:35: Hollywood’s changing mindset, proof of Internet-born film success
• 17:05–18:34: Is this a real shift—and what’s next for the movie business

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Takeaways

• Authenticity and digital-native storytelling are key to reaching Gen Z in theaters.
• The viral nature and participatory feel of films like Backrooms and Obsession are redefining what can succeed at the box office.
• Despite depressed moods post-pandemic, Hollywood sees renewed hope in low-budget, Internet-rooted horror from Gen Z creators.
• Questions remain about whether this marks a permanent shift, but it’s an inflection point for both creative risks and industry confidence.

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Transcript

[Jessica Mendoza]

All spring, our colleague Ben Fritz's 14 year old son has been bugging him to see one particular movie.

[Ben Fritz]

My son knows that I sometimes can snag tickets to premieres or early screenings.

[Jessica Mendoza]

Ben covers the entertainment industry and the movie in question was a horror film called Backrooms.

[Ben Fritz]

That's how I first learned this film existed, was he started asking me if I could get him into the earliest possible screening, ideally into the premiere.

[Jessica Mendoza]

Backrooms started as an idea on the Internet. And along with millions of other teenagers, Ben's son had closely tracked backrooms evolution online.

[Ben Fritz]

This wasn't just like, oh, this is a cool movie. This is like, you know, a big screen expansion of this whole mythology that has been really meaningful to him for several years.

[Jessica Mendoza]

Ben actually did get tickets to the premiere and he was amazed by how much his son had to say about the film.

[Ben Fritz]

He was like, oh, well, you have to understand that in this scene, like what this image represents is X and it's kind of similar to his videos, but it's different in this way.

[Jessica Mendoza]

So was he talking to you the entire time this thing was happening?

[Ben Fritz]

He's, you know, we've raised him in Los Angeles. He knows you have to keep your mouth shut in a movie theater.

[Jessica Mendoza]

Okay, good.

[Ben Fritz]

But afterward, he could not keep his mouth shut. He couldn't stop talking to me.

[Jessica Mendoza]

Ben was struck by all this excitement. His son's a member of Gen Z, a demographic that Hollywood has been struggling to crack for years. Gen Z just doesn't go to the movies the way previous generations have. That might be changing, though. Backrooms wasn't expected to be a major hit. But in just a few weeks, Gen Zers have turned out in droves to make it one of the most profitable movies of the year. And how significant is that for Hollywood in this moment?

[Ben Fritz]

It's really significant. A lot of people believed that the only movies that get people into theaters these days are franchises. People just want to see the 10th iteration of their favorite superhero or robot or toy adaptation or the remake or whatever. So to see something that's highly original and gets young people into theaters is. Is a huge deal for the movie business.

[Jessica Mendoza]

Are we watching kind of the dawn of the Gen Z movie era?

[Ben Fritz]

Yes, we definitely are watching the dawn of the Gen Z movie era.

[Jessica Mendoza]

Welcome to the Journal, our show about money, business and power. I'm Jessica Mendoza. It's Friday, June 12th. Coming up on the show, Gen Z goes to the movies. Finally.

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[Jessica Mendoza]

Backrooms is a psychological horror film. It's about a furniture store owner who discovers a mysterious portal in his shop's basement that leads to another world.

[Ben Fritz]

I found something in the store.

[Jessica Mendoza]

Okay, that world is a series of abandoned rooms and hallways that are hung with yellow wallpaper and flooded with fluorescent light. It looks a lot like reality, but it's off kilter. Uncanny.

[Ben Fritz]

All these places and buildings, rooms misremembering themselves.

[Jessica Mendoza]

I saw the movie myself last week and it doesn't have as much gore or as many jump scares as a lot of horror films do, but there was a pervasive sense of creepiness and being trapped. How did backrooms come about?

[Ben Fritz]

Backrooms started with a single photograph of a fluorescent lit room that was posted on the message board 4chan back in 2019 and people started latching onto it.

[Jessica Mendoza]

That single photo inspired all kinds of content. People posted similar images and had discussions on Reddit, uploaded videos on YouTube and TikTok, and even made Roblox games.

[Ben Fritz]

I think I found the back rooms. There exists a world that you can

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[Ben Fritz]

this can't be real.

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This.

[Ben Fritz]

This can't be real, bro. And it became a meme and everybody was. They were sort of using it to express this feeling, I think of ennui and feeling lost in the world and feeling kind of very exposed but not understanding what was happening. And that really, I think became relevant for Gen Z during the pandemic when everybody was stuck at home. So I think the whole backwoods mythology is built around this feeling that is very relatable to fans of being like, I'm not there, I'm not here, I'm somewhere in between. I don't know how to get out of it.

[Jessica Mendoza]

The filmmaker Kane Parsons is a gen zer himself. When he started posting videos About Backrooms on YouTube in 2022, he was just 16.

[Ben Fritz]

Sound, camera, rolling. All right. And action. And they were different genres. They weren't all scary. I would definitely call them broadly creepy. What the. This isn't real. This isn't real. There's this term on the Internet you may have heard called creepypasta. Yeah. And his videos very much fall into that.

[Jessica Mendoza]

And the style of these videos was very much like found footage, right?

[Ben Fritz]

Yes, absolutely. It feels like it's intentionally amateurish in that sense, Right. Like it's not made to feel smooth and slick, which gives it that creepy vibe. So yeah, you can think of it like the Blair Witch Project. Sure, if you remember that movie from 25 years ago. Except instead of in the dark in a forest, it's inside in a brightly lit room.

[Jessica Mendoza]

Parsons early videos got tens of millions of views. So many that he started attracting attention from Hollywood. According to Ben's reporting, Parsons talked to several studios, often turning to the advice of his high school film teacher. Eventually, Parsons signed a deal with the independent film company A24, best known for Everything Everywhere all at Once, Marty supreme and moonlight. And what did a 24 see in his work besides the millions of views? Right.

[Ben Fritz]

He is a filmmaker who is meaningful to a certain group of people and they're going to be excited to come out. And A24's I think intention was, hey, if just like a small number of young fans who love backrooms in the Internet, come, we'll have a success. This movie costs $10 million. It makes 50 million will be amazed.

[Jessica Mendoza]

You know, turns out backrooms did even better than that. In its opening weekend alone, it made more than $80 million domestically. Since its release two weeks ago, A24 said that the movie has made about $230 million globally, making it the company's highest grossing film to date. Now if we were talking only about backrooms, right. We would be like, okay, this was a one off horror film that really shot, but there's another film, another horror film that's going gangbusters at the box office right now. Obsession. Can you tell us about that?

[Ben Fritz]

Yeah. So Obsession is made by a director named Curry Barker, who came to fame on the Internet.

[Jessica Mendoza]

Like the director of backrooms, Barker is also gen Z. He's 26. He initially got some attention for his funny and scary videos online. And then he had an idea to make a feature length horror movie.

[Ben Fritz]

And he got financing he made it for $750,000.

[Jessica Mendoza]

Wow.

[Ben Fritz]

That's it, right? Incredibly cheap. And they took it to the Toronto Film Festival where it played like gangbusters. You know, it was just a phenomenon.

[Jessica Mendoza]

Obsession is about a high school student who makes a wish to win over his crush and magically he gets exactly what he wants, but it goes horribly wrong. It's a be careful what you wish for story.

[Ben Fritz]

I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. That movie came out and it has been the most amazing box office phenomenon, honestly I can say in certainly my professional career, which is that it opened to $17 million, which is very good for a low budget horror movie, but nothing spectacular. And then every weekend since then, the grosses have gotten better and better. Typically a movie would fall like 50% on a second weekend and it would continue happening every weekend.

[Jessica Mendoza]

Usually like the opening weekend is its best weekend is what you're saying.

[Ben Fritz]

Exactly. That's almost always what happens to a movie to see a movie go up, get more and more popular as it goes on. The only way I can think of to describe it is the movie has gone viral like an Internet video.

[Jessica Mendoza]

To date, Obsession has grossed nearly $250 million at the box office. Part of why these movies are doing so well is that they're horror. They join a long tradition of cheaply made horror movies doing better than expected, like Scream and the Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity.

[Ben Fritz]

Horror is a genre that is very effective at low budgets. And I think there's a lot of reasons. I mean, first of all, horror has always worked well in theaters because people like to be scared together. Like it works when you're with a large group in the dark, maybe next to your boyfriend or girlfriend.

[Jessica Mendoza]

And it was fun to be in a theater and feel people sort of like go eat, like beside you in like the corner of your eye.

[Ben Fritz]

Right? That's really great. You just can't replicate that at home, you know, so that's a big thing. So I, I don't want to see this as unique to Gen Z. Like, young people have always driven the horror genre, you know, all the way back to like Texas Chainsaw Massacre. So that's always been true because, you know, it's all about the things that are dangerous and that are unknown out there in the world. And you're at an age when you are going out into a scary world, I think.

[Jessica Mendoza]

So if the formula of the cheaply made horror film has worked for, for previous generations, what is it about these two movies that work for Gen Z, you know, that actually got them into theaters.

[Ben Fritz]

Well, I think very much that they feel like they are authentic films for and by Gen Z, you know, and so these are the first big successful movies that are made by Gen Z talent who came out of Internet culture and speaks very much to that culture. You know, I don't think a millennial could have made these movies.

[Jessica Mendoza]

After the break. How these surprise hits are helping drive Hollywood's best summer in years.

[Ben Fritz]

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[Jessica Mendoza]

So good, so good, so good.

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[Jessica Mendoza]

For a couple of years now, the tried and true movie formula that Hollywood has relied on has been losing steam.

[Ben Fritz]

Big franchises that have dominated the box office for a long time, like Marvel, like Fast and Furious, are having a harder time. They're not as successful consistently as they used to be.

[Jessica Mendoza]

This past spring, the industry put out a couple of movies that did well with audiences, though they weren't a huge departure from the traditional blockbuster formula.

[Ben Fritz]

The things people talk about this year that's working really well are like, feel good, inspiring movies. The best example of that would be Project Hail Mary, which was a massive success.

[Jessica Mendoza]

Please state your name.

[Ben Fritz]

Ryan and Grace. I spoke up from a coma. I'm several light years from my apartment, and I'm not an astronaut. And, you know, that's a movie that you come out of feeling really good about humanity's ability to come together and solve difficult problems. That's something people are really looking for in the movies. And then also the nostalgia, particularly millennial nostalgia has been really powerful at the box office. And the biggest examples of that recently are

[Jessica Mendoza]

Devil Wears Prada 2, which I also saw in the theater. Of course, I'm a millennial.

[Ben Fritz]

Yes, you are the prime demographic for that. Wait, wait, that's not what you're wearing to the dinner, that's all.

[Jessica Mendoza]

And now summer movie season has started, which is an important time for the movie business.

[Ben Fritz]

Yeah.

[Jessica Mendoza]

What have Hollywood executives been planning?

[Ben Fritz]

People are hopeful about the summer, and this is coming off of, you know, so far, 2026 has been the best year at the box office since the Pandemic. And people are hopeful that I think three movies in particular look like they could be huge, which are Toy Story 5, Brand New Day, and the Odyssey from Chris Noel.

[Jessica Mendoza]

But the surprise success of Backrooms and Obsession has been kind of a game changer in terms of what the industry thought could work.

[Ben Fritz]

There's been this huge mindset change in, honestly, just the past month in Hollywood for so long. People were very depressed about, like, oh, well, Gen Z just spends all their time staring at their phone and scrolling on TikTok and they don't want to go to movie theaters. Right. And now it's like, no, this doesn't have to be competition. This can be a place where we find talent, and that'll actually get Gen Z off their phones and bring them into theaters.

[Jessica Mendoza]

Mm. So were these two movies kind of the proof that the industry was waiting for in some ways?

[Ben Fritz]

Absolutely. I mean, nobody in Hollywood saw the success of these movies coming. And their outsized, massive success, you know, is being widely attributed to the fact that they are sort of this new wave of YouTuber films, social media born films, you know, the first movies that come out of Reddit and TikTok and Roblox and so on. And I don't think anybody in Hollywood really understood the potency of that until it's finally been proven.

[Jessica Mendoza]

So what does this all tell you about where cinema is going?

[Ben Fritz]

I think the age of the corporately managed franchise that gets where they pump out new installments as fast as possible and people keep coming is fading. And I think people are looking for a new kind of authenticity. And, you know, if you love movies, this is. This is. This is good news. You know, this is like a win for at least to some extent. This is a win for originality, and this is a win for movies being like a place that people can really enjoy themselves and feel good.

[Jessica Mendoza]

Is that enough, though, to get butts back in movie theater seats long term?

[Ben Fritz]

It depends how you measure it. I mean, we're going to have probably, certainly the best box office year since the Pandemic, but we're still not at the levels that we were pre pandemic. I mean, the best case scenario for the domestic box office this year is it gets close to $10 billion. It was a little over $11 billion. It's still really hard to get people into theaters when there's so many other entertainment options. That is just a fact of life. Right. So it's still an uphill climb, but at least it's moving in the right direction for the first time this decade. Really?

[Jessica Mendoza]

Does it feel like it's too soon to say, like blockbusters are done, we're moving to an age of movies made off of the Internet?

[Ben Fritz]

Yeah. I mean, it's always a bad idea to say certain thing is over and now a certain thing is everything in Hollywood. Right. But it is definitely true that low budget horror born out of digital culture is something that we're going to see more and more of and that clearly can be massively successful and that's really meaningful to the industry.

[Jessica Mendoza]

In a moment when the entertainment industry in Hollywood is struggling, in a moment when we hear so much about theaters closing and not enough sales, ticket sales happening, how important is this, even if it is just kind of the beginnings of hope?

[Ben Fritz]

Oh, it's hugely important. I mean, I would describe the mood in Hollywood for the past few years as really depressed. People just felt like they were sort of like the last survivors, you know, in a dying industry in some ways. And this is, this has spawned a lot of optimism that Hollywood can make things that are commercially successful and culturally impactful. So people now feel like there's a promising path forward for the movie business for the first time in a long time.

[Jessica Mendoza]

Before we go, we've got a two part special about the billion dollar business of the World cup and the scandals that have dogged its rise. Part one is already in your feed. Part two comes out on Sunday. Be sure to check it out. That's all for today. Friday, June 12th. The Journal is a co production of Spotify and the Wall Street Journal. Additional reporting in this episode by John Jurgensen and Esther Zuckerman. The show's made by Kathryn Brewer, Evelyn Fajardo Alvarez, Pia Gadkari, Max Green, Sophie Kodner, Ryan Knitson, Matt Kwong, Colin McNulty, Laura Morris, Enrique Perez de la Rosa, Sarah Platt, Allen Rodriguez Espinosa, Heather Rogers, Pierce Singhi, Jeevika Verma, Katherine Whalen, Tatiana's Amis and me, Jessica Mendoza. Our engineers are Griffin Tanner, Nathan Singapak and Peter Leonard. Our theme music is by so Wiley. Additional music this week from Peter Leonard, Billy Libby, Bobby Lord, Emma Munger, Haley Shaw, Nathan Singapok, Griffin Tanner, Extreme Music and Blue Dot Sessions. Fact checking this week by Mary Mathis. Thanks for listening. Happy Friday.