In December of 2025, Deadline predicted that the 2026 global box office would become the highest grossing year since 2019. The unparalleled success of May 2026 and the breakout of two young directors are giving hope to fans of cinema.
Movie theaters have been recovering from the painful effects of the pandemic, with the global box office grossing only $12.4 billion in 2020. Since then, hits such as “Barbie,” “Oppenheimer,” “Wicked: Part One,” “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” and “Dune: Part Two” have brought billions to the box office together. These films were not only a financial success, but also attracted a cult following to each one.
“Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” brought in audiences from cult followings of the directors and actors. “Wicked: Part One” attracted long time lovers of the original Broadway musical and Ariana Grande fans. “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” and “Dune: Part Two” existed to carry on the story of their successful predecessors. While all of these films were widely successful, audiences walked into the theater knowing what to expect to a certain degree.
May 2026 was full of many successes, including “The Devil Wears Prada 2,” “Obsession,” “Michael,” “Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogru” and “Backrooms.” The Hollywood Reporter states that “Cinemark said it had its biggest-ever domestic box office last month, and AMC Theaters recorded its highest-attended month of May since 2019.”
“The Devil Wears Prada 2,” “Micheal” and “Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogru” were expected to be prosperous, but the unexpected hits “Obsession” and “Backrooms” broke records.
“Obsession,” directed by 26 year old Curry Barker, has become Focus Features’ highest grossing movie of all time at $286.5 million worldwide, and has surpassed “Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogru” domestically, via Deadline. With a cost of only $750,000 to produce, “Obsession” has become one of the most profitable films of all time.
Beating out “Marty Supreme,” “Backrooms,” directed by 20 year old Kane Parsons, is now A24’s biggest opening weekend to date, grossing over $118 million worldwide.
For their young age, the success of Barker and Parsons is rare nowadays. To break the status quo even more, Barker dropped out of film school and Parsons isn’t even in college yet.
Coincidently, Barker and Parson’s both got their start on YouTube.
Barker attended The New York Film Academy, but dropped out after one year and created the comedic YouTube channel “that’s a bad idea” with Cooper Tomlinson, fellow classmate and dropout. On the channel, the duo creates comedy sketches and Barker directed a few horror short films, as well as one full length horror film “Milk & Serial.”
With over 34 million views spanning across 22 videos, Parsons created an internet hit at just 14. On YouTube, Parsons created a series of short films, each one showing the viewer more and more of the backrooms.
While the numbers are impressive, the success of these two young film makers means more to Gen Z.
Keegan Morris, an aspiring filmmaker, is an incoming sophomore at UT majoring in cinema studies. Morris attended Tennessee’s Governor’s School for the Arts in the summer of 2024, and his short film “Watch” was played in the All American High School Film Festival. Morris saw both “Backrooms” and “Obsession” twice in theaters.
Morris says he was drawn to rewatch them for a couple reasons. “The main reason was the fact that there were either friends of mine that hadn’t seen it, and I liked the movies that much that I wanted to see their reaction in person, and see the reactions when things are going on in (the films). But other than that, it was just really good filmmaking that really drew me back to the theater.”
As a horror fan, Morris said that his favorite part of “Obsession” was that “it was genuinely the first movie in a long time to disturb me as much as it did.”
As for “Backrooms,” Morris said that he couldn’t stop thinking about it after the first watch. “‘Backrooms’ had a lot going on past what you saw. There was way more to it, so after watching it for the first time I thought about it a lot, and learned about what Parsons had done in the past connected to the movie, and then I went in a second time with more information to learn more about it.”
The emotions the films themselves evoke are undeniable, but for aspiring filmmakers like Morris, the success of these young directors means everything. Morris said the untraditional paths of Parsons and Barker gives him hope for not only himself, but the future of cinema. “They’ve already shown me that people, literally my age, like Parsons being a year older than me, can make it big in the industry.”
AI has become a concern for many careers, mainly in creative fields. “Obsession,” having a small budget, did everything possible to avoid expensive effects. Even with a $10 million budget, Parsons advocated to bring the backrooms to life. The “Backrooms” set was built over four sound stages with 30,000 square feet of half walls and scaffolding that measured 1,520 feet tall.
“It’s just very inspiring to know that to see both (Parsons and Barker) and a lot of the audience revoke AI, because that was the thing that concerned people, but it’s given me hope that it’s something that will not affect the industry,” Morris says on what gives him hope for the future of cinema.
Even though “Obsession” and “Backrooms” both belong to the horror genre, their success is a hint to Hollywood that this is what cinema needs.
Francis Ford Coppola, director of “The Outsiders” and “The Godfather,” praised Barker and Parsons in an Instagram post with the caption, “It’s always great to see young independent filmmakers finding success. The films ‘Obsession’ and ‘Backrooms’ prove that audiences crave original and authentic stories. Congratulations to Curry Barker and Kane Parsons for believing in these projects and influencing young filmmakers everywhere.”
When the “traditional path” is no longer necessary to be successful, a new era begins. Morris says “it’s almost like watching the industry evolve before our eyes.”
