{"id":849817,"date":"2026-06-07T02:50:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T02:50:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/849817\/"},"modified":"2026-06-07T02:50:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T02:50:17","slug":"backrooms-obsession-box-office-explained-by-jason-blum-james-wan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/849817\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Backrooms,’ ‘Obsession’ Box Office Explained by Jason Blum, James Wan"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a horror movie double bill, \u201cBackrooms\u201d and \u201cObsession\u201d<\/a> have emerged as the box office success story of the year. <\/p>\n

A24 hired \u201cBackrooms<\/a>\u201d director Kane Parsons to adapt his own I.P. \u2014 in this case, a 20-plus episode YouTube creepypasta set inside abandoned, acid-yellow liminal spaces \u2014 for a truly weird, conceptual horror movie that\u2019s now earned $140 million and counting at the box office.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, another YouTuber, Curry Barker, wrote and directed the original careful-what-you-wish-for possession movie \u201cObsession<\/a>\u201d for $750,000. Focus Features acquired it out of last year\u2019s TIFF for $15 million, and now everyone involved is chortling with glee over the $166 million-plus global box office and two weekends straight where the movie\u2019s intake has risen.<\/p>\n

\"TUNER,<\/a> \"'Jinsei'\"<\/a> <\/p>\n

So who better to sit down with us on IndieWire\u2019s \u201cScreen Talk<\/a>\u201d than two of the minds behind the making of these movies: Blumhouse-Atomic Monster leaders Jason Blum, who backed \u201cObsession,\u201d and James Wan, a producer on \u201cBackrooms.\u201d<\/p>\n

The two companies began discussing a merger in 2022 and merged in 2024, forming a single company with two labels. Wan most famously backed \u201cThe Conjuring\u201d series, one of the most profitable horror franchises of all time, while Blum\u2019s successes date back to the found-footage favorite \u201cParanormal Activity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hear from both of them on this week\u2019s \u201cScreen Talk,\u201d where they break down what went into the phenomena of \u201cBackrooms\u201d and \u201cObsession,\u201d and what Hollywood should take away from their achievement.<\/p>\n

They also tease Blumhouse\u2019s upcoming reboot of \u201cThe Blair Witch Project\u201d \u2014 the first viral horror movie \u2014 and Wan talks about returning to the \u201cSaw\u201d movies for the first time since he wrote and directed the original 2004 film<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere on this week\u2019s episode, we also parse Martin Scorsese\u2019s dabble in A.I.<\/a>, having recently employed the generative services of Black Forest Labs to develop storyboards on what appears to be his next film, \u201cWhat Happens at Night.\u201d Plus, we weigh Oscar chances for \u201cDisclosure Day,\u201d spoiler-free, as reviews don\u2019t hit streets until next week.<\/p>\n

Listen to the episode below or on your preferred podcast platform.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As a horror movie double bill, \u201cBackrooms\u201d and \u201cObsession\u201d have emerged as the box office success story of…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":849818,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[28],"tags":[310044,171,1020,53,107048,5158,347281,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-849817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-backrooms","tag-entertainment","tag-film","tag-movies","tag-obsession","tag-podcasts","tag-screen-talk","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116706556349024112","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=849817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/849818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=849817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=849817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=849817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}