A24's psychological horror film Backrooms, starring Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve, opened in US theatres on May 29, 2026 and shattered the studio's all-time opening weekend record, with tracking pegging the debut at roughly $80 million to $90 million domestically,according to The Hollywood Reporter. The figure more than triples the prior A24 record holder, Alex Garland's Civil War, which opened to about $25.5 million in 2024.
The film and its cast
Directed by 20-year-old YouTuber-turned-filmmaker Kane Parsons in his feature debut,Backrooms follows Clark (Ejiofor), a struggling furniture-store manager, and his therapist Mary (Renate Reinsve), who discover a gateway to a seemingly endless maze of liminal rooms hidden in the store's basement. Mark Duplass, Finn Bennett, and Lukita Maxwell co-star,per Wikipedia's film entry.
The film is based on Parsons's viral YouTube web series, which was itself inspired by the Backrooms creepypasta that spread online beginning in 2019. With the film's success, Parsons became the youngest filmmaker ever to top the domestic box office, eclipsing Josh Trank, who was 27 when Chronicle opened at number one in 2012.
Production and release
Principal photography began in Vancouver, Canada on July 7, 2025 under the working title Effigy, and wrapped on August 14, 2025. The reported production budget was $10 million,per Variety.Backrooms premiered at the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica on May 7, 2026 before its wide US release on May 29, opening with $10.4 million in Thursday previews alone, another A24 record.
Reception
Reviews have been largely positive. Metacritic logged a weighted average of 77 out of 100 from 41 critics, indicating generally favorable notices.The Hollywood Reporter and Deadline both highlighted the lead performances and the film's slow-burn dread over jump-scare conventions, while Screen Daily singled out the chemistry between Ejiofor and Reinsve. A UAE theatrical date has not been publicly announced at the time of writing.
