A24’s Backrooms turned an unassuming YouTube horror series into one of 2026’s biggest theatrical surprises. Kane Parsons, only 20 when the film hit theaters, adapted his own web series about eerie liminal spaces into a feature that pulled in $81.4 million domestically and $118 million worldwide over its Memorial Day weekend debut, easily the strongest opening the studio has posted in its history. With that, Parsons became the youngest director ever to land a No. 1 movie, breaking a record Josh Trank set at 27 with Chronicle back in 2012. Backrooms has since climbed past $190 million domestically and $360 million worldwide against a budget of roughly $10 million, which also makes it one of the most profitable movies in Hollywood’s history. That kind of money has pushed studios to comb through YouTube, Reddit, and TikTok, looking for whatever creepypasta might be next.
Deadline reported that Sony’s TriStar Pictures has closed a deal for the film rights to Trevor Henderson’s Cartoon Cat. The character is one of Henderson’s most recognizable creations, a feline monster whose entire existence is fueled by the shared nostalgia people carry for old cartoon characters, energy it draws on to cross over into the real world and wreak havoc. The Cartoon Cat news comes just weeks after Henderson landed an even bigger deal for Siren Head, the creation that first turned him into an internet phenomenon. Henderson conceived Siren Head as a slim giant, whose head is replaced by a pair of siren-like speakers that play sounds to draw unsuspecting people into secluded areas before attacking them. Warner Bros. won the Siren Head rights after a bidding war involving five studios, with Weapons director Zach Cregger co-writing the script alongside Brian Duffield, who is also directing.
Is Internet Horror Hollywood’s Next Gold Rush?
The theatrical box office has struggled to fully recover since the pandemic, as audiences grew comfortable watching new releases at home instead of paying for a ticket. Studios made that habit easier to keep by shrinking exclusive theatrical windows in favor of faster premium video-on-demand, giving moviegoers an incentive to simply wait a few weeks for a cheaper option, a decision that’s easy to make during a period of broader economic strain. Audience taste has shifted as well. Superhero movies that once functioned as guaranteed money-makers now regularly post middling numbers, a trend that has forced Marvel and DC alike to pursue different creative processes.
This past summer offered a blunt illustration of that instability. Supergirl opened to just $62 million worldwide on a $170 million budget, a result that has Warner Bros. and DC Studios bracing for a loss that could pass $100 million. Masters of the Universe underperformed even further with $54 million, while The Mandalorian and Grogu became the lowest-grossing live-action Star Wars release in the franchise’s history, trailing even Solo. Even Mortal Kombat II, which earned strong reviews, stalled around $125 million worldwide against an $80 million budget that needed closer to $150 million to break even. Meanwhile, Backrooms and Obsession, a pair of horror films built on a fraction of those budgets, kept shattering records throughout the same stretch.
Hollywood has a well-documented habit of flooding the market the moment a formula works, and the sudden rush to option every viral creature and creepypasta risks repeating that mistake. Still, Backrooms turned a roughly $10 million budget into a $118 million opening weekend, a ratio that no traditional blockbuster has ever come close to matching. As long as internet horror keeps delivering that kind of return relative to its cost, more of these deals should be expected in the coming years.
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