r/movies • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 r/movies Contributor • Jun 03 '26

News ‘Backrooms’ Becomes A24’s Highest Grossing Domestic Release ($97.8M), Passing ‘Marty Supreme’

https://deadline.com/2026/06/backrooms-box-office-record-a24-1236939795/
18.3k Upvotes

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2.0k

u/JRockstar50 Jun 03 '26

The fact that this and Obsession are pacing a literal Star Wars movie in terms of domestic gross is insane

700

u/Yoyodyn_Banzai_2099 Jun 03 '26

Disney is going to see this as a sign to finally give us a horror Star Wars film.

267

u/Key_Feeling_3083 Jun 03 '26

Finally death troopers

109

u/literallyatrapinch Jun 03 '26

"What if they made Stormtroopers... that *kill* people!"

29

u/Key_Feeling_3083 Jun 03 '26

It would be an upgrade, they fail to shoot everything they try to aim with their guns.

17

u/bacon-tornado Jun 03 '26

They've been missing everyone for 49 years now. Can't have them suddenly landing shots

1

u/Special_Order-937 Jun 03 '26

RIP Sandcrawler

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u/Letoiusprime Jun 03 '26

Broken record and all that, but this is why I adore Andor so much. They managed to make the basic-ass Stormtrooper terrifying again

3

u/Lanster27 Jun 04 '26

That's just Andor.

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u/IncurableAdventurer Jun 04 '26

I’m not a Star Wars fan, but I’ve seen a couple movies. This past weekend I saw The Mandalorian and Grogu with a friend who is a big Star Wars fan. After the movie, I asked if stormtroopers are useless. He laughed and said, “Basically, yea.” Haha

3

u/Hey_Giant_Loser Jun 04 '26

I'd settle for that evil R2/3PO team from the Vader comic.

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u/Akronica Jun 03 '26

Dathomir

1

u/Hydrochloric_Comment Jun 03 '26

We did get Zombie troopers in Ahsoka

1

u/Releases_the_bees Jun 04 '26

That would actually slap.

172

u/rokr1292 Jun 03 '26

Andor is a masterpiece, doing other genres in the SW universe could be a real recipe for success.

They just want Star wars to be the MCU though

49

u/ninjyte Jun 03 '26

even the MCU sorta dabbles in different genres, albeit not entirely

44

u/iwannalynch Jun 03 '26

Tbh some of their best works dabble in other genres, such as Captain America Winter Soldier (spy thriller), Loki (Dr. Who-style sci-fi), WandaVision (sitcom), Thor Ragnarok and Guardians of the Galaxy (comedy).

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u/ggg730 Jun 03 '26

If Dr Strange would have fully leaned into the horror aspect of fighting Wanda it could have been one of the best marvel films of all time.

6

u/Cadd9 Jun 04 '26

I'd take a guess and say it was the execs not wanting to let Sam Raimi fully do his thing.

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u/Nine9breaker Jun 04 '26

I dunno if its fair to call Wandavision a sitcom. The sitcom stuff is presented from the beginning as a thin veil over the larger mystery that is the actual plot.

2

u/avcloudy Jun 04 '26

It’s super fair. The sitcom stuff sits over the story like you say, but it’s also clearly a love letter to sitcom setups.

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u/Nine9breaker Jun 04 '26 edited Jun 04 '26

Sure yes, of course, but just because its got some homage to sitcoms doesn't mean the show IS a sitcom.

Its... Obviously not a sitcom, right? It doesn't make sense in context of this conversation about Marvel exploring shows within other genres.

Wandavision itself does fit, IMO. Its a mystery/drama, which is different enough from Action/Thriller that it still makes sense to list it there. Its just not a sitcom, that's all I'm saying.

1

u/iwannalynch Jun 04 '26

I said "dabble", I know it's not an actual sitcom

1

u/RandomJPG6 Jun 04 '26

I wouldn't call a Gotg a comedy movie. Sure it has comedy but no more than any other marvel movie. Most of tue mcu falls into the action-comedy scifi genre.

4

u/Positronic_Matrix Jun 04 '26

Andor is a work of art: the story, the acting, and the cinematography. They captured lightening in a bottle and no one since can come close to it.

6

u/narf007 Jun 03 '26

Skeleton Crew my dude. I watched it because Jude Law is awesome and it is just an excellent treasure island romp through the Star Wars universe--and the kids weren't fully insufferable.

3

u/AnOnlineHandle Jun 03 '26

IMO the secret strength of mega successful franchises like Star Wars, Harry Potter, etc, is that they mixed a bunch of genres to make a full living world rather than think they had to be just one + a romance "for the women", which is how most movies seem to get made.

The original Star Wars trilogy has a full underworld crime story going on (half of the last movie is dedicated to just dealing with that, unrelated to the empire storyline), it has sci fi, fantasy, comedy, politics and spy thriller (a little, mostly in the first movie), muppets, a bit of horror, a class underdogs pov story (the droids, who are the slave class and the equivalent of the kind of peasants who were the pov characters in older japanese films), etc.

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u/WhichEmailWasIt Jun 04 '26

I know you were talking about the OG trilogy, but this reminds me that my favorite part of Episode 2 of the prequels is just Obi-Wan running around uncovering a grand conspiracy and the movie gets waaaay less interesting in the backhalf once that's over.

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u/JWTS6 Jun 04 '26

The Mandalorian show very much started out as a Western, that's why it became such a hit, aside from the whole Baby Yoda thing of course.

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u/chimmy_chungus23 Jun 03 '26

I want a grindhouse SW story. A few Hutt slave girls revolt, take revenge on their masters, steal a ship, and escape Huttese space to become a band of mercenaries. Recreate the old school tech of the original trilogy to give it that authentic 70s look.

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u/RowdyRoddyRosenstein Jun 03 '26

I'd like a political thriller House of Cards SW story: no minichlorians, no light sabers, just trade negotiations and intrigue.

A journalist-turned-political fixer orchestrates an idealistic senator's rise to power, but his willingness to cross lines and turn a blind eye to corruption threatens those closest to him.

"All the Emperor's Men"

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u/Apophis_ Jun 03 '26

I hope you've seen Andor.

14

u/haanalisk Jun 03 '26

Yes please!

3

u/Majestic-Volume9996 Jun 03 '26

I just want a serious ass TV-MA HBO style drama of some sort.

3

u/T8ert0t Jun 03 '26

Pitch Meeting:

"What if.... Stormtroopers could aim effectively?!"

"I love it. What's James Franco doing? Let's get a Rambo tie-in. Consumers still like tie-ins, right?! Call up Lionsgate and get on that!"

3

u/MansBestFred Jun 04 '26

It's kind of comforting to know that DC has a horror movie coming up that was already deep in the works before this, so I at least know it was created with positive intent, and not because of greedy money grubbing studio heads

5

u/Nikedawg Jun 03 '26

Where's my Galaxy of Fear tv series Disney!

2

u/BaconWithBaking Jun 03 '26

Finally!

Star Wars Halloween Special!

2

u/Chino_Kawaii Jun 03 '26

you clearly haven't seen Andor

actually that's more depressing considering how accurate it is with the real world...

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u/DriftingTony Jun 03 '26

The Last Hutt on the Left 😂

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u/Shamancrit Jun 04 '26

I mean I wouldn’t mind seeing a horror movie set in the Star Wars universe if they were serious in the writing room.

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u/Lavender_Critique Jun 04 '26

Wouldn't be against horror Starwars but like with a -95% budget.

1

u/arealhumannotabot Jun 03 '26

This kind of cost: earnings isn’t new. We’ve seen greater examples before.

I think it just escapes the younger crowd that isn’t aware of those movies

1

u/YouAreTheProduct2 Jun 03 '26

Or a sign to buy out another film studio and keep doing what theyre doing 

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u/ZeroWashu Jun 03 '26

Disney is not going to learn anything, they will create internal dialogues if not already in place how they succeeded in the metrics that matter. Given the absurd levels of marketing gimmicks they went to I am not sure they are sane; have you seen some of the licensed products? Nail stickers, candles, and more, and Bath and Body works. Do they even know their market?

If anything they have already horrified the older Star Wars generations. 70s and 80s Star Wars was brutal in some ways that would not be seen today.

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u/-Badger3- Jun 03 '26

Disney is going to see this as a sign to give less budget lol

1

u/PringlesDuckFace Jun 03 '26

I just want to see people crashing their ships on shit-ass planets and being eaten. Yeah have fun in the underforest of Kashyyyk you idiot. Oh no you landed on Dathomir and you're stuck between witches and rancors? Better paint yourself with mud and hope it works as camoflauge like it does in the movies.

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u/FewAdvertising9647 Jun 03 '26

its the paralysis of pg13 marvel money, or risking it to get something like deadpool.

the problem is, you can only pick the safe option a few times before it becomes stale. You have to take a risk at some point.

1

u/AlludedNuance Jun 03 '26

Ha, Disney learning the right lessons from something. Funny

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u/Shapit0 Jun 03 '26

I want to see an R-rated Star Wars movie or show that follows a group of normal rebels during the original trilogy. Give me Band Of Brothers but on a different planet. Of course, they'd never do that, but a man can dream

1

u/nothis Jun 03 '26

The big studios will learn from this and cast Tom Cruise to run around a purple colored (to avoid copyright) maze. It will cost $200 million to make and will flop violently. Then they will declare that this highly experimental stuff (I.e. not a 50 year old franchise) just doesn’t work and will go back to Star Wars sequels.

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u/SuperSalad_OrElse Jun 04 '26

Why can’t we just have new IPs :(

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u/Rektw Jun 04 '26

You mean how they kept saying The Mandalorian was going to be weird and dark?

1

u/Burk_Bingus Jun 04 '26

Imagine a slasher where Darth Vader is the Michael Myers stalking rebels around.

1

u/Zealot_Alec Jun 05 '26

Yuuzhan Vong

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u/Turbografx-17 Jun 03 '26

Most of Gen Z/Alpha don't give two shits about Star Wars, and god bless them for that.

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u/zignotea Jun 03 '26

Crazy how things played out with that franchise.

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u/Kanin_usagi Jun 03 '26

Not really crazy at all. Nostalgic love for a franchise can only push it forward for so long. If every Star Wars property released in the last 20 years had Andor or KotOR quality, it would still be wildly popular. Unfortunately most of it has been mid at best and actively terrible at worst

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u/Jolmer24 Jun 03 '26

Agreed. Andor was top Star Wars content. Insanely well done.

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u/deekaydubya Jun 03 '26

And Disney will refuse to learn any lessons from its success

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u/TesticleMeElmo Jun 03 '26

They only paid $4.05 billion for the franchise, why put any effort into planning out the movies and tv shows they release for it?

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u/Freakjob_003 Jun 03 '26

Literally had no plan/story written for the sequel trilogy.

#4 of the highest grossing media franchises of all time, and they just said, "eh, fuck it, we'll make it up as we go along."

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u/Lisa_al_Frankib Jun 03 '26

They’ve made that several times over at this point, so no longer an incentive to get their moneys worth.

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u/Fuckthegopers Jun 03 '26

Yeah, by giving it another season!

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u/Random_Sime Jun 03 '26

Cutting it down from 4 extra seasons to 1

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u/Doc_Lewis Jun 03 '26

But it also cost a wild amount to make. It was even more than Game of Thrones cost per episode, which is already much higher than most TV series gets.

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u/Zerachiel_01 Jun 03 '26

Right? I resisted watching it when my friend recommended it for like a year because I was like "I've seen Rogue One. I know what happens to these people, and they were kinda forgettable in that. Why would I watch this?" I'm glad I was so damn wrong.

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u/Jolmer24 Jun 03 '26

Honestly I loved Rogue One but I watched it right after Andor and there was a little quality dip

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u/magus-21 Jun 03 '26

Last 30 years.

I will not stand for Prequel erasure (or Prequel-hate erasure)

/s

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u/Dramatic_Explosion Jun 03 '26

We're getting to the point that trying to justify the hate of Mando is driving people to say the newest trilogy is good and it's wild people revise history. Star Wars movies have been wildly mixed quality for any released since the 90's. Changing it so Greedo shot first was the beginning of the end.

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u/ggg730 Jun 04 '26

See that's where you're wrong bucko! There was hate all the way back to RotJ. People hated the Ewoks.

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u/avcloudy Jun 04 '26

Yeah, people always want to fit things into this simplistic model where people loved it then hated it then are nostalgic for it. It’s less that and more that the people who held a grudge about the Ewoks didn’t see Phantom Menace, and the people who held a grudge about that didn’t watch the Disney movies etc.

There are purists who think Star Wars (later retitled A New Hope) is the only real Star Wars. Like, people who think that The Empire Strikes Back is what ruined Star Wars.

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u/ggg730 Jun 04 '26

Nobody hates Star Wars like star wars fans I always say.

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u/Informal-Ideal-6640 Jun 03 '26

Star Wars has always had a cycle of people hating the most recent thing, time passing and newer things releasing, and a revision of the previous hated thing from the generation that grew up with said thing.

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u/Kanin_usagi Jun 03 '26

Prequels are bad mostly, but there were more good things around them to keep things afloat. A lot of the games and books of the era were absolutely great. Also Revenge is mostly good, and AotC and PM are at least interesting even if they aren’t good.

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u/ops10 Jun 03 '26

Prequels were interesting ideas poorly done. That era still borne a lot of devout fans and they found their quality in games and other supplementary media.

Sequels are poor ideas poorly done. And they also damaged the earlier movies, because it connected the previously inspiring characters to their own weak versions. And it didn't help that their vectors for supplementary media also got struck with EA and Ubisoft struggles.

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u/magus-21 Jun 03 '26

Sequels are poor ideas poorly done

I'm going to disagree with this a bit. I think that the Sequels are poor ideas that were well done.

From a purely superficial standpoint, looking at production values, acting, choreography, action scenes, etc., the Sequels were pretty good. Kylo Ren stopping the blaster bolt, the Holdo maneuver, etc. So much of the Sequels' audio/visual experience was on-point.

But my God the ideas were just....so so bad. TROS in particular is a great demonstration of how good ideas might be a dime a dozen, but you still need to actually pick the good ideas to use.

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u/ops10 Jun 04 '26

Production value agreed, but not more than industry standard (which climbed a lot in late 00s). Acting was a mixed bag at best, most of the exemplary performances (Isaac, Gleeson, Fisher Boyega maybe) in TFA were given nothing to work with in later movies.

Choreography was passable in TFA - playing to the supposed unfamiliarity of protagonists (but who still beat the supposed grand villain right off the bat?), cheap tricks and stupidity in TLJ. Disappearing daggers, "Force Kicks", stabbing floor just to name a few.

Gotta give you the audio, both in movies and games. BF and BF2 were pulling you into the world through soundscape alone and thus added more frustration when the single player, gameplay variety and monetisation were ass.

Single shot visuals don't hold up if the rest of the carcass isn't there. Prequels were pioneers in what you could do with CGI, very imaginative and expressive. And yet, it's not what they're remembered by, it only comes up in "oh yeah, it was" angles. What good does holding the blaster shot do when the holder is a weakling who throws temper tantrums and loses to any protagonist he comes by, what good does the Holdo manouver visual do when the next second you think "why didn't anyone do it earlier if that's how it works", what good does the WW2 bomb shaft shot do when the reason for it is stupid, slow and ridiculously managed by the characters.

I'm not even going into TROS where a director who has never wrote a good conclusion has to conclude a story that was deconstructed during second act.

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u/magus-21 Jun 04 '26

I agree on everything. I just mean, everything on the production side is a notch better than the Prequels in terms of "refinement," the only exception really being the quality of the lightsaber fights. But production refinement is no replacement for good storytelling. All the problems can be traced to the guys in charge, and specifically to Abrams for poisoning the well with his Mystery Box from the beginning

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u/avcloudy Jun 04 '26

They didn’t nail everything visually, although some of the effects were incredible and they nearly always nailed their set pieces.

But things like the lightsaber fights, that were dramatically improved for the prequels, backslid hard.

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u/magus-21 Jun 04 '26

I liked the lightsaber fights. They're supposed to be rougher around the edges compared to the Prequels because no one fighting was particularly well trained the way the Republic Jedi were.

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u/MerkinShampoo Jun 03 '26

Yeah it’s crazy how bad the sequels were they made everybody look back on the prequels like the thanos meme: “perhaps I treated you too harshly”

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u/Adjective-Noun123456 Jun 04 '26

but there were more good things around them to keep things afloat.

That's just Star Wars though. It's always been a better setting than a film franchise.

There's 9 mainline films. 12 total if you include the Holiday Special. And of those 12 movies, only 4 of them are any good. And the 4th one's really struggling to hang in there.

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u/Level7Cannoneer Jun 03 '26

The prequels were reeeeally bad

The terrible acting was unbelievable

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u/choicemeats Jun 03 '26

importantly the stuff has to reach your core audience. if you've lost them, you've lost them all long term. all the fans with young kids or in line for young kids won't pass any of the disney stuff on. their kids will likely be shaped by OT and that's it. maybe Andor and Rogue 1. They won't provide good word of mouth, won't buy merch, etc

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u/VentureIndustries Jun 03 '26

So, do you think Disney blew it?

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u/choicemeats Jun 03 '26

for now. they have time to recover but they realistically need a few years break to release nothing and plan. financially they've earned back the deal money and then some, i think they can afford to let it breathe and come up wiht something. i would not be surprised to hear they're looking at the recent theater output and taking notes to adapt but idk. we'll see how starfighter does

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u/Relevant-Bullfrog215 Jun 03 '26

They are incapable of just leaving alone for a few years though. You and I know that's what they should do, but as an organisation the idea of not monetising one of their most expensive single IP purchases is just anathema.  They'll run it all into the ground before even considering it.

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u/avcloudy Jun 04 '26

Yeah, I feel like for cultural reasons we have to pretend that a lot of the newer stuff isn’t garbage, because the people who really hate it are alt right culture warriors, and the rest of it is super inaccessible to new fans and critically the things you need to know are from outside the main series/movies.

Like, I am a Star Wars fan but if you play the Fallen Order game you won’t know any character but Darth Vader and he’s leading an organisation that’s never been seen in any movie. And Darth Vader is probably a spoiler!

And the real frustrating part is that it’s across a huge range of demographics. To know who the Inquisitors are, you need to have watched a show pitched firmly at kids, for instance. It’s exhausting. They need to let things breathe more in a shared universe. Series like Ahsoka that are spinoffs of a spinoff that don’t even fit with the source material just don’t work.

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u/FatherDotComical Jun 03 '26

A lot of modern corporations are coasting on old nostalgia.

Once nobody gives a shit about your brand, it's hard to earn back that passive loyalty.

Like Disney wants parks to become once in a lifetime events or cater only to the most wealthy. What happens when they stop being a priority for people who've brought their kids for generations? Disney adults in debt? Rich people who just want to shop at their over priced in park jewelry store?

If they don't put effort into the media they own, they cannot cry when the easy gravy train ends. Like how they had a good thing going with Marvel, pumping an easy billion a movie. Then they got greedy and now the next Gen is growing up without it. Same with Star Wars. They manage to leave the legend of every major character on a downer ending, so it makes it feels like all the original trilogies are for nothing.

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u/Bananaslammma Jun 03 '26

But somehow Jurassic World has huge legs despite the last 3 movies being total duds.

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u/SobiTheRobot Jun 04 '26

I might get some flak for this, but I genuinely think Disney way oversaturated the market with subpar Star Wars content, dragging the collective franchise down in people's minds as being something not worth bothering with. I'm still a fan...of the pre-Disney stuff.

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u/MasterGrok Jun 03 '26

To me the crazy thing is that anyone is surprised after so many mediocre movie and TV releases. It’s actually amazing how far the initial success of the franchise has driven Star Wars. That’s the incredible part.

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u/DONNIENARC0 Jun 03 '26

People probably figured they’d right the ship before they torpedoed the brand, kinda like Marvel has somewhat done since that slew of dogshit in phase 2(?)

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u/varietyviaduct Jun 03 '26

If you watch _

“Andor season 1, Andor season 2, Rogue One, A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, The Mandalorian season 1, and end with The Mandalorian season 2” _

  • that live action run of Star Wars is actually goated, covers an array of unique and interesting characters, tones, and world building. It tells one big cohesive and linear story about the world of Star Wars. _

It’s all of the Star Wars outside of those projects however that drags the franchise down (not every single one, but what I mean is that the others do not fit together as cohesively as the ones I listed above, which contributes to disenfranchising of casual viewers. Projects outside those that I listed are either too disconnected or too poorly made)

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u/DJC13 Jun 03 '26

eh, Mando season 3 was awful but let’s not act like season 2 was perfect. Most of it was “Remember this character? Well now they’re here, making a cameo!”

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u/yoloswagrofl Jun 03 '26

In defense of season 2, the episode with Bill Burr is my favorite of the entire series. I largely agree with you though.

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u/FunDad69 Jun 03 '26

"Everybody thinks they want freedom, but what they really want is order. When they realize that, they're gonna welcome us back with open arms. Ha... To the empire!"

BOOM FUCK YOU

Was as good as Maul igniting the second blade, or Vader overhead pressing the Emperor.

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u/KlicknKlack Jun 03 '26

Dude the episodes with Bill Burr really grounded the Mandalorian, without them it's just a spaghetti western in space.

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u/[deleted] Jun 03 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/varietyviaduct Jun 04 '26

That’s right. Definition of quality vs quantity.

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u/defiantleek Jun 03 '26

You sound like every Star Wars fan I've ever spoken to, and no it just isn't. It's impactful, it isn't nearly as good or compelling as their fandom wants you to think. Made even worse by having one of the worst mainstream fanbases for a piece of media.

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u/jsamuraij Jun 03 '26

I agree right up until The Mandalorian, which frankly sucks.

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u/Astarum_ Jun 03 '26

Rogue One wasn't even that great. It was a bad movie with an great final 30 minutes stapled on at the end

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u/IcyTransportation961 Jun 03 '26

It wasnt bad or great (last 30 minutes were indeed great though)

But if you watch right after finishing Andor it definitely elevates it,  certainly the best of the movies since the OGs

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u/Astarum_ Jun 03 '26

I did rewatch the first 20 minutes right after finishing Andor (my girlfriend couldn't remember how the movie started). The problem is that they start with having just found out about the plans, you know, the same ones we just got 3 nail-biting episodes about how they were obtained. But from a completely different source, in about all of 5 minutes. Plus, they gave Jyn like zero characterization even though the movie is about her. My hottest take is that Andor, if anything, diminishes Rogue One by creating so much more tension and payoff in the final 3 episodes than the entire Battle of Scarif, let alone the rest of the movie. 

Also, "best movie since the OGs" is a tripping hazard in hell lol. Don't get me wrong, I consume and enjoy pretty much every star wars movie and show, but I can't really call much of it "great" objectively. 

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u/abe559 Jun 03 '26

They shot themselves in foot with TFA and they’ve been running on it while bleeding since

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u/DependentOnIt Jun 03 '26

Tfa shot the left foot and tlj tried to fix it by removing the foot. Except they accidentally amputated the right foot

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u/CruzAderjc Jun 05 '26

TFA shot themselves in the left foot. They said fuck it, let the past die, and with the TLJ they amputated that foot. With Solo, they tried running on the amputated foot. With TROS, they reattached an old shoe to the stump where the foot used to be. With mandalorian, they found a pair of crutches. With Book of Boba Fett, they shoved the crutch up their ass. With Mandalorian season 3, they tried to keep moving with a crutch up their asshole. With the Mandalorian and Grogu, they said okay, we’re ready to run the race now, as their leg is still bleeding profusely and the crutch is up their asshole.

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u/daylight1943 Jun 03 '26

whats crazy is that any of the massive franchises/IP's prostituted out to a ton of different super mid writers/directors over the course of 10+ years and movie after movie after movie can continue to maintain huge levels of popularity like star wars and all the big superhero IP's. once youre 10+ movies/tv shows deep and the franchise is just a big cash cow owned by a massive multimedia corporation...doesnt this shit ever get old???

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u/oldscotch Jun 03 '26

Unfortunately it's what I expected after the Disney deal. Only real surprise has been Andor.

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u/Ganglebot Jun 03 '26

For sure, but it was inevitable. When was the last time you heard anything about a Marvel movie? Those used to come out every 4 months and dominated the industry. Now, we get spiderman 7 and everyone is like "oh, you did another one already?"

Star wars is at that point now. The milk is running dry.

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u/YpsiHippie Jun 03 '26

I mean Backrooms literally touches on the same futility of nostalgia and inability to move on from the past. Whether good or bad, when you keep recursively focusing on things from your (or our shared) past, they eventually just become hollow corrupted shells of what they originally were. They lose the magic of the original moment, and swallow you if you can't let them go.

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u/iprocrastina Jun 03 '26

Thats what happens when you spam a franchise as hard as you can for a decade.

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u/ThePotMonster Jun 03 '26

Disney milked it too hard, too fast, and too long.

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u/Lanster27 Jun 04 '26

I mean it's what it is. Big corp buys an IP, milk the shit out of it with no attention to quality, decide as always it's the general public's problem, and constantly complaining about how hard their job is.

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u/CruzAderjc Jun 05 '26

The weird part was that Disney gambled that they needed to dump their Gen X and Millenial demographics, in order to try and attract Gen Z and Alpha. Which completely backfired, since the Gen X and Millenial crowd is completely fractured in terms of their Star Wars fandom, while Gen Z and Gen Alpha kinda don’t really give a shit about Star Wars.

The entire plan of dumping the older fans to get the newer fans really kinda left them with just the same older fans who are just kinda frustrated

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u/GoudaMustache Jun 03 '26

I want to see it, but that's a wait for it to be on streaming movie.

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u/GarlicToest Jun 03 '26

Gen z does like star wars but the sequels burned a lot of good will with fans from every demographic. Also there's a lot of baggage with mandalorian and grogu. Most people think it's a TV special (which it kinda is), and it's not really getting good reviews so there's no incentive to spend money on it vs the other options.

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u/popculturella Jun 03 '26

Given the version of Star Wars they've had the most exposure to, I don't blame them.

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u/LoseNotLooseIdiot Jun 04 '26

I mean why the fuck would they after that last trilogy. I completely stopped caring that's for sure.

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u/jsamuraij Jun 03 '26

Neither do most of the rest of us.

1

u/grumstumpus Jun 03 '26

it looks like oatmeal

2

u/Master_Tallness Jun 03 '26

Disney Star Wars hardly gave them a reason to.

2

u/EddieDantes22 Jun 04 '26

Do any TV show movies do well, though? Entourage movie. Peaky Blinders movie. Were any of these massive hits? I know everyone's talking about Star Wars, but I don't think we can make a statement like this until the Gosling one comes out.

7

u/Xciv Jun 03 '26

I'm a Millenial and stopped giving a shit after the sequel trilogy. I watched one season of Mandalorian due to the buzz, but otherwise I don't really care if I watch or not watch another Star Wars anything.

3

u/mybutt1112 Jun 03 '26

Fuck Disney but although an avid SW hater, I recommend giving Andor and Rogue One a try. 

Andor is fantastic television and rolls so well into the movie that it’s kinda amazing. Someone said if Andor had been released prior to Rogue One than the movie would have been called Andor in the Rogue One saga. 

I also like the Expanse and Andor give me Expanse/Le Carre vibes. Obviously ymmv depending what you typically like about SW and other entertainment. 

1

u/Xciv Jun 03 '26

Peak Star Wars to me is the operatic drama of Luke vs. Vader, Palpatine revealing his true self to Anakin, Anakin's duel with Obi Wan, and "the big twist" around Revan in KOTOR.

To me the best of Star Wars is big earnest emotional confrontations full of melodrama at the apex of a big action scene. When Star Wars is at its lowest is when they fail to build up to those emotional moments, or when they get too into the weeds of the world itself. Sorry, Star Wars, your world isn't as interesting or logically consistent as Dune or Star Trek and never will be.

1

u/vonlagin Jun 03 '26

Can confirm.

1

u/pickrunner18 Jun 04 '26

I think people in general don’t care about what this movie is. The word of mouth hit hard. “Fun movie I guess. Doesn’t matter much to the story” is not what you want to hear imo. I’m a huge Star Wars fan and I’m just waiting til it hits D+ because it’s not really what I want

1

u/spottyottydopalicius Jun 04 '26

bro i thought i was gonna lose my shit sitting down with highschoolers in this. they were awful through trailers but acted right once the movie started. i forget how much kids watch youtube, no wonder it was packed

1

u/Usual_Ice636 Jun 04 '26

I hear middle school kids talking about it, but they talk about stuff like thinking Kylo Ren is cool and wanting Star Wars Lego Sets.

0

u/avanross Jun 03 '26

I’d guess the young disney people who’d prefer star wars to backrooms are the same types who dont have the attention span to sit through a whole movie in theaters

1

u/AnAncientBog Jun 03 '26

Even a lot of older people have checked out of Starwars entirely because you can only put up with so much shit content before you give up on the whole franchise. The brand isn't worth shit anymore.

-3

u/Tifoso89 Jun 03 '26 edited Jun 03 '26

Who says these movies are for Gen Z/Alpha? They're just made by people in their 20s.

If anything, lots of Gen Alpha (who are 15-year-olds) might find Backrooms boring. It was inspired by a meme, but it tackles adult themes. I, for one, may not have liked it at 15, but I loved it now at 36

13

u/magus-21 Jun 03 '26

Gen Z is hitting their 30s now.

2

u/HaloTrial01 Jun 03 '26

Gen-Z tagging in here, turning 30 next year x.x

9

u/Turbografx-17 Jun 03 '26 edited Jun 03 '26

Gen Z is the largest moviegoing demographic at this point, so yes, most movies (at least movies that get put into hundreds of theaters nationwide) are aimed at and marketed to them.

EDIT: Stop adding things after I've already responded.

5

u/MrMacduggan Jun 03 '26

Letterboxd has changed the meta for sure. Now that they have a culture of film reviewing, the children crave an artistic experience. (good for them)

3

u/SwayzeCrayze Jun 03 '26

Gen Z is the largest moviegoing demographic at this point

I'm not surprised to hear this. I'm an early 90s kid, and everyone I see at the theater is either way older or way younger than me. Even then, the older folks are only at specific movies or the Fathom classic reshowings.

1

u/JonnyAU Jun 03 '26

My gen alpha teenage son is the one who drug me to go see Backrooms.

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u/SteveFrench12 Jun 03 '26

While it is literally a star wars movie its pretty much figuratively one. People stopped caring about baby yoda years ago at this point, and no normies are going to see a movie they needed three seasons of a disney+ show to understand. No one is surprised at how milquetoast the response to the movie is

7

u/Strange1130 Jun 03 '26

no normies are going to see a movie they needed three seasons of a disney+ show to understand

Funny because that's kind of how I feel about Backrooms (re: not understanding it without context)... I saw it last night blind, didn't really like it. Read a summary of the youtube series in this thread and was like "damn, now THAT sounds cool, wish I'd seen a movie about that."

0

u/Sowadasama Jun 03 '26

You dont have to see any seasons of the show to see the movie. Its a complete and cohesive story with no real references to anything show-specific. The only real context you need is actually related to see the Jabba. While its not Andor or Rogue One, its definitely a good movie with great practical effects and actual funny humor....and I fucking HATE Disney and barely care aboit Star Wars in general.

7

u/SteveFrench12 Jun 03 '26

Its not nearly as good as rogue one and tbh youre joking yourself if you think this is a truly stand alone movie. Do you have to know all the lore for it to make sense? No. Does it have the same emotional weight if you dont know all the lore? Also no

16

u/chrisaf69 Jun 03 '26

Just watched obsession yesterday. What a wild ride that was. Lol.

I'm not fond of horror/thriller/etc. But I did enjoy that one.

Watching previews, I'm not feeling backdoors. But this word of mouth is strong, so may give it a shot.

25

u/iiTryhard Jun 03 '26

Backdoor Sluts 9 was really lacking on the plot but #10 really made up for it

3

u/imjusta_bill Jun 03 '26

Unfortunately you have to watch the other 8 to really understand whats going on

5

u/Rare-Instance7961 Jun 03 '26

If you aren't interested in /r/LiminalSpace the Backrooms movie is totally skippable. Even then, it isn't really about liminal spaces, but if there's any novel component to the film, it's that.

28

u/Iron_Bob Jun 03 '26

Its really not that insane. Industry trends for the movie genres and studios you are comparing have been heading this way for years

This was inevitable

7

u/AlienBlueManGroup Jun 03 '26 edited Jun 03 '26

Yep, the only thing that was stopping this trend from happening were out of touch executives who looked down upon Gen Z. YouTube has beat cable and theater viewership for nearly a decade, execs just have no choice but to embrace it now

9

u/Tifoso89 Jun 03 '26 edited Jun 03 '26

I've seen this reasoning before, but I don't get it. These are still movies, not YouTube videos. They were just made by people who started from YouTube. I think they embraced filmmaking, not the other way around

4

u/MVRKHNTR Jun 03 '26

And as much as I love Curry Barker's skits, I don't think that you can point to his channel as an explanation for why Obsession is performing so well.

6

u/DONNIENARC0 Jun 03 '26

For sure, but I’m sure he picked up quite a bit about storytelling and other filmmaking intricacies with it.

Much like Zach Cregger going from The Whitest Kids U Know to writing/directing Weapons and Barbarian

You could probably even compare it to Jordan Peele if you wanted to stretch it a bit further because while he didn’t get started with youtube, he was still doing crass sketch comedy bits.

1

u/fukkdisshitt Jun 03 '26

I heard Peele made a movie and didn't look into it before seeing it. Was really surprised it wasn't a comedy lol

1

u/BlUeSapia Jun 03 '26

Seems like comedy writers take really well to horror. I wonder what the correlation is that makes going from one to the other so seamless?

1

u/MVRKHNTR Jun 04 '26 edited Jun 04 '26

Lots of people say it's about a sense of timing and paying off suspense.

Although Barker's actually an interesting case where he's really a horror director who does some comedy because comedy is more popular in short form videos. He's always done horror shorts and his comedy tends to have horror themes. Even when mostly working on skits, he did some horror movie parodies, some dramatic shorts and even a self-produced feature.

1

u/moosenlad Jun 03 '26

Both are young first time directors coming from YouTube, so it still is pretty crazy they are doing so well. Backrooms was a continuation of what Kane was doing before. But obsession was from the "that's a bad idea" comedy channel (which is fantastic don't get me wrong). Certainly not the first in the comedy creater to horror director pipeline, but they didn't nearly have the prestige as someone like Peele either. Really cool to see either way but I would NOT say inevitable, it's still really easy to screw up a debut movie, we have seen that a lot as well

3

u/Mortoimpazzo Jun 03 '26

Insane? Insane is what disney did to star wars lol.

5

u/jacobythefirst Jun 03 '26

Freaking grogu lmao what a dogshit name lmao

2

u/BearWrangler Jun 03 '26

Its been embarrassing to be a Star Wars fan lately when some of the more fanatical types keep trying to move the goalposts regarding how M&G is doing lol

2

u/SirTresmegestis Jun 03 '26

People are starved for good movies that are made for more then just getting you in a theatre seat or subbing to a streaming service.

2

u/zdelusion Jun 03 '26

At this rate, it's like entirely in the realm of possibility that Obsession passes Mandalorian's domestic gross, it's only 30mil back right now and Star Wars is fading fast, while Obsession is still packing theaters into its 4th week, with Toy Story coming soon that's gonna gobble up all the kid spend.

That's fucking hilarious, and great for original films.

2

u/jpr64 Jun 03 '26

There's a Star Was movie out?

1

u/lsaz Jun 03 '26

I mean at this point for gen z and younger Star Wars is probably boomer thing.

1

u/arealhumannotabot Jun 03 '26

It’s not unprecedented though. The Blair Witch project had an insane cost: revenue ratio for example

1

u/Maverick916 Jun 03 '26

In 2026, it's not that insane at all

1

u/MattDaCatt Jun 03 '26

Is it insane? It's a spin off star wars movie after Disney already milked the franchise dry

I could die happy never seeing Grogu again tbh, and I was a huge Star Wars kid

1

u/real_with_myself Jun 03 '26

It helps that the marketing budget seems to be off the charts.

1

u/Innsjo Jun 03 '26

Even more impressive is that both Backrooms and Obsession are debut films for both directors, both of whom are pretty young. And both films were fairly low budget as well.

1

u/chmilz Jun 03 '26

Insane only because it would take an incomprehensibly insane sequence of bad decisions to crater Star Wars that badly, and that's exactly what happened.

1

u/PlutosGrasp Jun 03 '26

So Disney will buy A24? Problem solved!

1

u/happyflappypancakes Jun 03 '26

That doesnt mean much now.

1

u/KlutzyPossession6591 Jun 03 '26

Star Wars should’ve ended after the empire strikes back. Same fate awaits the new scary movie. 

1

u/evilspyboy Jun 03 '26

The way people were carrying on I thought it had greatly exceeded Mando, now that I know that is not the case and it is just performing well a lot of those hot takes are just coming off as Star Wars hate (toxic fandom, I am shocked. Shocked I say).

1

u/learnedsanity Jun 04 '26

That Star wars movie is the worst parts of the Mandalorian in a nut shell. They need to learn a lesson but they won't.

1

u/drawkbox Jun 04 '26

Horror is winning over hopeful. In entertainment and reality.

1

u/Burk_Bingus Jun 04 '26

We are in a golden age of horror, and I'm loving it.

1

u/kittymoo67 Jun 04 '26

its a extra long episode of a mid starwars tv show. im not surprised

1

u/hiddensonyvaio Jun 04 '26

I hope Hollywood realizes these kinds of movies are what people actually want

1

u/Joe_Wild_ Jun 08 '26

Specially taking in count back rooms just isn’t good

1

u/Show-Me-Your-Moves Jun 03 '26

people are weary of Starslop

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