{"id":4519,"date":"2026-06-01T09:10:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T06:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/imgist.ru\/20-letnyaya-kompaniya-sozdala-zakulise-teper-ona-tvorit-istoriyu-a24\/"},"modified":"2026-08-29T11:41:51","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T08:41:51","slug":"the-20-year-old-company-created-behind-the-scenes-now-its-making-history-at-a24","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/imgist.ru\/en\/20-letnyaya-kompaniya-sozdala-zakulise-teper-ona-tvorit-istoriyu-a24\/","title":{"rendered":"The 20-year-old company created "Behind the Scenes." Now it's making A24 history."},"content":{"rendered":"

Kain Parsons, 20, this weekend directed the biggest box office hit in A24's 14-year history. \u00ab"Backrooms"<\/em> , a psychological horror film he wrote based on his viral YouTube series, grossed $81.4 million at the U.S. box office and $118 million worldwide in its May 29 debut weekend.<\/p>\n

With a $10 million production budget, co-financed by A24 and Chernin Entertainment, these figures mark one of the most profitable launches of 2026 and are the clearest signal yet that the generation of filmmakers who built their audiences on YouTube now dominates the theatrical experience.<\/p>\n

FORBES | By Ty Rausch. "Behind the Scenes" set an A24 record with $81 million in its opening weekend, surpassing "Whiplash" and "The Mandalorian.".<\/p>\n

What is the Backrooms project about?<\/h2>\n

At the core Backrooms<\/em> lies one of the most famous examples of folk horror on the internet. The concept originated from a single photograph of an empty, fluorescent-lit office hallway, anonymously posted online in 2019\u2014the image spawned a mythology surrounding the idea of being "incapable" of escaping reality and becoming trapped in an endless series of liminal spaces.<\/p>\n

Parsons, then a teenager, turned this mythology into a series of YouTube videos, filmed in the style of "found footage," that have amassed 80 million views. The series followed a fictional research team that ventured deep into the wilderness, and its combination of genuine horror and amateur filmmaking caught the attention of A24, which entrusted Parsons with directing the feature film rather than handing the concept over to a renowned director, as reported by Popviewers.<\/p>\n

The 105-minute film stars Chiwetel Ejiofor as a failed architect who accidentally discovers a strange doorway in the basement of the furniture store he manages, with Renate Reinswe playing a supporting role. The plot summary\u2014"a strange doorway appears in the basement of a furniture store"\u2014is intentionally terse, according to A24's official synopsis.<\/p>\n

A record has already been broken in "Behind the Scenes of Records".<\/h2>\n

The film "Behind the Scenes"\u00ab<\/em> earned $10.4 million in Thursday night previews alone, enough to recoup its entire reported production budget by Friday morning and set a new A24 record, surpassing the previous film preview record. \u00ab"Civil war<\/em> \u00bb", which amounted to $2.9 million.<\/p>\n

By Friday, the film had earned $38.4 million, including previews, surpassing even the most optimistic industry forecasts, which initially estimated the film would gross between $20 million and $50 million, Deadline reports.<\/p>\n

The film's opening weekend in the US grossed $81.4 million, the highest in A24's history, surpassing its record. \u00ab"Civil War<\/em> \u00bb" more than tripled its opening weekend to $25.5 million. It's also the biggest debut ever for an original horror film and the best debut ever for a first-time director helming a non-franchise film, according to Variety.<\/p>\n

At 20, Parsons became the youngest director to top the US box office; the previous record was held by Josh Trank, who was 27, for film "Chronicle"\u00ab<\/em> in 2011. According to Variety, the total worldwide box office \u00ab"Behind the scenes<\/em> \u00bb" grossed $118 million, making it one of the most profitable films of 2026 in terms of return on investment\u2014eleven times its $10 million production cost in a single weekend.<\/p>\n

The audience profile is also striking. According to Deadline, 88% viewers during the opening weekend were under 35, with more than half under 25. About 62% viewers were men. Half came because it was an A24 film; the other half came as longtime fans. \u00abBehind the Scenes\u00bb<\/em> , the report says. The film was released simultaneously with \u00ab"The Mandalorian" and "Grogu"\u00bb<\/em> , which earned $81.6 million in its opening weekend\u2014the debut of "\u00ab Behind the scenes<\/em> \u00bb"At $81.4 million in the US, it's one of the smallest openings for any film in recent memory. \u00abStar Wars\u00bb<\/em> .<\/p>\n

Who is Kane Parsons? <\/h2>\n

SANTA MONICA, CALIFORNIA \u2013 MAY 7: Director Kane Parsons attends a special screening of A24's "Behind the Scenes" at the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica, California on May 7, 2026. (Photo by Amanda Edwards\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Getty Images<\/p>\n

Parsons engaged his audience as much as the director did. \u00ab"Obsessions"\u00bb<\/em> Curry Barker - via YouTube. His web series \u00ab"Behind the Scenes<\/em> \u00bb", which began as a found footage-style short film and later evolved into a full-fledged series, demonstrated specific skills that are directly applicable to horror filmmaking, such as an understanding of narrative pacing and the ability to create a genuine sense of unease with minimal resources.<\/p>\n

The weekend's results propelled Parsons and Barker\u2014whose own film is now in its third weekend and making history\u2014to become two of the most talked-about young filmmakers in Hollywood. Both came from YouTube. Both made horror films. Both were given creative control by studios, even though they could have taken their intellectual property and given it to someone else.<\/p>\n

What does Backrooms mean for A24?<\/h2>\n

For A24, the weekend was a commercial confirmation of success on a scale the studio hadn't previously achieved (though it also received a slew of critical acclaim). Founded in 2012 and known primarily for its award-winning prestige films and mid-budget genre fare, A24 has spent 14 years building one of the most recognizable brands in cinema, and \u00abBackrooms\u00bb<\/em> has now demonstrated that the brand has genuine commercial clout with a mass audience, not just critics.<\/p>\n

According to Deadline, half of opening-weekend moviegoers cited A24 as the reason for their visit, suggesting that the studio's name alone attracts young moviegoers in a way that few studios outside of Disney can claim.<\/p>\n

The film "Behind the Scenes"\u00ab<\/em> is now showing in US cinemas.<\/p>\n

This article was originally published on Forbes.com.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kain Parsons, 20, this weekend directed the biggest box office hit in A24's 14-year history. "Backrooms," a psychological thriller\u2026<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4520,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kinoindustriya","hvn-theme-has-thumbnail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/imgist.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/imgist.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/imgist.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imgist.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imgist.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4519"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/imgist.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4519\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":148321,"href":"https:\/\/imgist.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4519\/revisions\/148321"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imgist.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/imgist.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imgist.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imgist.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}