Kane Parsons, a 20-year-old director from Petaluma who first built a following on YouTube, has officially jumped to the big leagues. His horror film Backrooms opened over Memorial Day weekend and debuted at No. 1 at the North American box office, pulling in roughly $81 million in its first three days. The A24 release, made for about $10 million, also grabbed strong international receipts, giving a local creator a remarkably fast lane to a global audience. For Bay Area moviegoers, it is a hometown win and one more sign that audiences still show up for original scares in theaters.
Box Office By The Numbers
Industry estimates put Backrooms’ domestic opening at about $81.46 million for the three-day weekend, according to Box Office Mojo. Trade coverage and box-office tracking firms reported the film earned roughly $118 million worldwide over the same period, marking the biggest opening in A24’s history, per TheWrap. Lining up that scale of revenue against a production budget of about $10 million, the film is already well on its way toward profitability.
From Petaluma Shorts To A Feature Film
Parsons began posting videos as a kid and eventually turned a liminal, found-footage concept into a web series that blew up online. His channel, Kane Pixels, now has more than 3 million subscribers, the San Francisco Chronicle reports, and the feature grew out of shorts he started releasing in 2022. That built-in audience appears to have converted directly into ticket sales for his first theatrical feature.
Hollywood Is Taking Notes
Producers and studio executives say the weekend’s numbers are a wake-up call. “The world is changing, and Hollywood needs to look to YouTube to find the young people who are coming up and have something to say,” producer Kori Adelson told the San Francisco Chronicle, referencing an interview she gave to Variety. The strong showing also keeps legacy horror power players happy: Blumhouse-Atomic Monster held both the No. 1 and No. 2 spots over the weekend, an unusually dominant position for low-budget horror titles.
Why Young Audiences Mattered
Exit polling shows the crowd skewed heavily young. According to the Associated Press, about 86% of ticket buyers were younger than 35, more than half were under 25 and 44% were under 21. That kind of age breakdown helps explain how a modestly budgeted, internet-rooted film could outdraw a major franchise release on the same weekend. Analysts note that creators who arrive with sizable online followings can focus on opening-weekend box-office performance and spark repeat viewings without the massive advertising budgets that tentpole films rely on, a dynamic highlighted in trade coverage from TheWrap.
What’s Next For Parsons And The Local Scene
Parsons has indicated he plans to keep making projects rather than head straight to college, and industry watchers say studios will increasingly scout for talent on platforms where audiences already spend their time. Observers told The Washington Post that this weekend could influence how Hollywood evaluates young creators and allocates marketing dollars. For now, a filmmaker from Petaluma has handed local fans something easy to brag about, turning a viral concept into a nationwide hit that nudges the business to rethink how it discovers its next wave of storytellers.
.jpg){kind=link}