It’s not quite Barbenheimer 2.0, but the box office juggernaut of Backrooms and Obsession is still very impressive. The indie horror films, released weeks apart in May, have been unstoppable—not even a new Star Wars movie could ruin the popcorn party. And now, both films have officially passed the $200 million mark, setting new records for their respective studios.
Obsession, which opened May 15, achieved the rare feat of improving its ticket sales during its second week of release, proof it was riding high not just on glowing reviews but also enthusiastic word of mouth. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Curry Barker’s film, made on a budget of around $750,000, is now Focus Features’ highest-grossing film of all time, having passed $200 million globally. (It already held the title for Focus’ highest-grossing domestic film; currently, it stands at $151 million in that column.)
What’s more, Obsession “dropped just 7 percent in its fourth weekend, with its $25.6 million setting a record for the best fourth weekend hold ever for a horror film, as well as the top fourth weekend ever for horror. The previous record holder on both counts was Blair Witch Project, which was down 9 percent in 1999 and earned $24.2 million in its fourth weekend,” THR writes.
And here’s another fun fact: Obsession is also “the first movie since 1982’s E.T.: The Extraterrestrial to increase in weekends two and three.”
In the similarly haunted theater next door, Backrooms—which opened May 29 and blew past early projections to notch A24’s biggest-ever opening weekend—has achieved the $200 million milestone in even less time. Variety reports Kane Parsons’ film, made for $10 million, is now “officially A24’s highest-grossing worldwide release, as well as the studio’s first movie to surpass $200 million in ticket sales.”
Backrooms has caught on overseas too, where, as Variety notes, it’s raked in “$77 million from 57 territories” and “broke opening weekend records for A24 in 41 countries.” Among its other superlatives, it’s also “the studio’s highest-grossing title ever” in Latin America.
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