Backrooms: A24's Biggest Opening Ever
45sReveals a surprising box office record and the young director's achievement, sparking curiosity.
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Did you see that Backrooms is A24's biggest opening ever? >> Yes, and Kane Parsons is the youngest director with a number one box office release. >> Okay, I know this started with a YouTube video that Kane uploaded, but what's Okay, what's the lore? Tell me the lore. >> It actually started in 2019 on 4chan with a photo of an empty furniture store in Wisconsin that was undergoing renovations. How about that? >> Whoa. >> And a comment
that was left on that photo saying that basically this is what happens when you no-clip. Do you know what no-clip means? >> I know what no-clipping is, but >> Do you care to explain? >> Yeah, no-clipping is in a video game where you like get out of the level and it glitches and you're like in this ever-expansive space. >> like you fall off the map and you're stuck sort of in like no-man's-land. >> Or the Backrooms.
>> Yes. Okay, so that's 2019 and it sparks multiple Reddit threads where people are basically contributing to the lore of this one photo, building it out into worlds with rules and characters and storylines. It just goes crazy. Now, Kane Parsons doesn't upload his video on YouTube that you were talking about until 2022. >> So, yeah, when I first came across it, it's a 9-minute video that just feels eerie. >> What the hell? >> And it's not
all like found footage, it's actually made in like a VFX software. >> Yeah, it's made in Blender, which is a 3D animation software, but it has a VHS effect on it, so it kind of looks real and it doesn't feel like a video game, it feels more like a real-life 90s setting. >> Like The Blair Witch Project. >> Yeah, sort of. But Blender and indoors. >> [laughter] >> And on YouTube and 8 minutes long. >> Right.
>> It's successful pretty much immediately. >> Last I checked, it has 81 million views. >> When was the last time you checked? Like today? Cuz it has 81 million >> started recording. [laughter] >> Yeah, it has 81 million views and it was, from what I've heard, very successful when it came out. And got the attention of Hollywood pretty much immediately, and he turned it into a series on YouTube while it was being developed into a movie.
So, he's 16 when he uploads the first video to YouTube. He is 18 when he strikes the deal to turn it into a movie. He directs it at 19, and he's 20 now when it comes out. Making him the youngest director to have a number one box office hit.