‘Backrooms’ Is Tracking for an Impressive $20M Opening… It Will Go Much Higher

I’ve been deeply ingrained in box office reporting for more than 25 years, and while nobody bats 1.000 in this business, I’d say I’ve developed a pretty good feel for when something is genuinely breaking through. Tracking is built on awareness, interest, surveys, social metrics, and a dozen other indicators studios use to project openings, but sometimes you can feel a movie before the numbers fully catch up. Sometimes the energy is just there. And with A24’s Backrooms, I’ve been saying for months that this thing was going to explode.

Not after the trailer. Not after the marketing campaign kicked in. Before any of that.

Anyone familiar with the original Backrooms videos already understood the potential here. This isn’t some random horror title trying to manufacture internet buzz; the audience already exists, and it’s massive. Fans have been telling people for years that Backrooms was bigger than Hollywood realized, and now the early box office tracking is finally starting to reflect that.

The first numbers coming in are impressive. Deadline reports that Backrooms is currently tracking around $20 million domestically, which is hilariously turning heads in the industry. I knew. The fans knew. Welcome to the club, suits.

But honestly? I still think the tracking is low.

And I’m not alone. The fanbase has been screaming this forever: Backrooms is going to be huge. The online awareness is enormous, younger audiences are locked in, and the concept has crossed over far beyond niche internet horror circles. This has the kind of grassroots momentum you can’t fake and, more importantly, the kind studios often underestimate until tickets actually go on sale.

I’ve seen this pattern before. Sometimes the data catches the wave early. Sometimes it catches it late. With Backrooms, I think we’re still early.

In Backrooms, Academy Award nominee Chiwetel Ejiofor plays a furniture store owner who discovers a portal to a strange, empty office space hidden in the back of his shop.

Lukita Maxwell and Finn Bennett also star in the A24 horror movie set to be one of the biggest of the year.