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Backrooms producer is already warning that studios will learn the wrong lessons from its success
With Backrooms and Obsession striking box office gold last month, Hollywood is going to try to replicate that success by scouring YouTube and TikTok for their next golden egg
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The people have spoken, and this year’s big thing is horror movies made by YouTube filmmakers. Both Obsession and Backrooms have become box office hits that nobody could see coming, grossing more than $120 million each on a pair of remarkably small budgets and with relatively unknown directors. However, one Backrooms producer warns that he thinks Hollywood is going to take the wrong lesson from the films’ success and start thinking everything YouTube or TikTok needs to be a two-hour film.
“We’ve all been looking at a lot of places for a while,” Backrooms producer Chris Ferguson said in a recent interview when talking about how Hollywood finds their potential film ideas. “And I’m sure there’s going to be a bit of an over-correction when everybody goes and options every random YouTube short. They’re not all feature films.”
Just because Obsession director Curry Baker and Backrooms director Kane Parsons both got their starts on YouTube doesn’t mean Hollywood should expect every young filmmaker on social media to be the next big thing. “I do think people are going to make the mistake of taking a bunch of TikTok videos and turning them into features,” Ferguson warned. “Online is a great platform for people to come out, but it is still about people who have trained themselves for a longform execution.”
Both Obsession and Backrooms are currently in theaters and, as of writing, have a combined box office gross of $262 million on a combined budget of less than $11 million, so you can understand why Hollywood wants to replicate that kind of success.
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