Howdy, folks!
After last weekend’s monumental box office run, in which Gen Z filmmakers Kane Parsons and Curry Barker toppled Star Wars, there was plenty of interest in what would happen this weekend. Spoiler alert: The numbers are pretty great across the board.
Here are the highlights:
- “Backrooms” dropped 68% to $26 million, expected given it’s a piece of IP. But still enough to make Parsons’ horror film A24’s highest-grossing movie ever, with a stunning $212 million worldwide after just two weeks against a $10 million budget.
- Barker’s “Obsession” had its first drop at the box office after four weeks, but it dipped just 7% to blow past $200 million worldwide. The Focus Features acquisition was made for under $1 million.
- “The Mandalorian and Grogu” continues to pace under “Star Wars” box office lowpoint “Solo” with $10 million in its third weekend, with a worldwide total of $300 million. By Wednesday, “Obsession” will have grossed more than “Mandalorian” domestically.
As for new releases, it’s time for another installment of “what young people actually want to see.” Paramount’s “Scary Movie” reboot, the first installment in the franchise since 2013, topped the box office with $55 million — and it did so by hooking more than just millennials. Over 70% of the opening weekend audience was from the 18-34 demographic, with 62% under the age of 30. How about that?
Amazon MGM’s “Masters of the Universe,” meanwhile, played mostly to Gen Xers with a disappointing $29.3 million domestic opening for the fantasy blockbuster and 59% of its audience over the age of 35. Just 6% of the audience was under the age of 18.
Amazon MGM insists it’s happy with that opening number — and the film will have downstream revenue on Digital and, eventually, as a Prime Video movie — but it feels like the writing is on the wall for leaning on IP that was popular in the 1980s, unless you have a huge creative swing to hook it on like Greta Gerwig did in “Barbie.” As “Scary Movie,” “The Devil Wears Prada 2” and the ongoing “Scream” franchise show, the new sweet spot for reliable IP is the late ’90s or early 2000s.
While some big-budget films ahead will certainly get young moviegoers’ attention (“The Odyssey” and “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” will be massive), it’s definitely been interesting to watch these low-to-mid-budget movies dominate the box office against pricey blockbusters the last couple of weeks.
Now, on to the rest of this week’s Reel to Real column as we tackle the YouTube-to-Hollywood filmmaker pipeline, Cinemark’s big stock pop, Netflix’s “War Machine 2” and more in this week’s newsletter.
Box Office: ‘Scary Movie’ Cruises to No. 1 With $105 Million Global Opening
Paramount/Miramax’s “Scary Movie” is cruising to the top spot at the box office over Amazon MGM’s “Masters of the Universe,” earning $55 million from 3,490 locations, which is the highest for the horror movie parody series before inflation adjustment. Globally, the film has made $105 million for the weekend.
Holding a reported production budget of just $30 million before marketing costs — all financed by Miramax — “Scary Movie” is an instant mid-budget theatrical success regardless of whether its full theatrical run is frontloaded or not.
72% of the opening weekend audience was from the 18-34 demographic, with 62% under the age of 30, showing that while millennial nostalgia was a major contributor, Gen Z also showed up looking for a good laugh after driving A24/Chernin’s “Backrooms” and Focus’ “Obsession” to box office success. According to Paramount, 90% of opening weekend moviegoers polled say that had seen a previous “Scary Movie” installment.
While “Scary Movie” was younger-skewing, Amazon MGM’s “Masters of the Universe” was, as one might expect for a film based on an ’80s franchise, driven by Gen X with 59% of its opening weekend audience over the age of 35 and 37% over the age of 45 as the film earned a domestic opening of just $29.3 million.
Though this opening result is dwarfed immensely by the film’s $170 million budget before marketing, Amazon MGM domestic distribution head Kevin Wilson stayed positive in a statement released Saturday.
“This weekend represents a very solid start for ‘Masters of the Universe’ and the passionate, multigenerational audience response we’re seeing around the world has been fantastic,” he said. “Travis Knight and the entire cast and filmmaking team have delivered something truly special, and this opening is exactly the kind of critical first moment that validates our holistic distribution strategy—building awareness and engagement that will carry well beyond the theatrical window.”
Reception for the film has been generally positive with a B on CinemaScore, Rotten Tomatoes scores of 66% critics and 88% audience, and PostTrak approval ratings of 81% among general audiences and 89% among kids.
But with an under-18 audience turnout of just 6%, “Masters of the Universe” doesn’t have much time to grow its family audience and achieve its goal of introducing He-Man to a new generation before Pixar’s “Toy Story 5,” which is projected for one of the best animated openings ever at well over $150 million, comes in as major competition. – Jeremy Fuster
The Spotlight
Is YouTube the breeding ground for the next generation of filmmaking talent? In the wake of the “Backrooms”/”Obsession” box office bonanza, Jeremy Fuster spoke with producers like James Wan and several agents and managers to get a lay of the landscape after the monumental shakeup. Opinions vary on what, exactly, happens next, but one thing’s for certain: The game has changed. Read the full story here.
New Releases
Before ‘Backrooms’: Jeremy Fuster also spoke with “Lights Out” and “Shazam!” filmmaker David F. Sandberg about his own experience going from YouTube sensation to Hollywood filmmaker. He has some advice.
Wrong Lessons?: For another POV this week, creator expert Kayla Cobb wrote about the wrong lessons Hollywood is taking from this moment.
He Has the Power: After years of development hell, Travis Knight finally got “Masters of the Universe” off the ground. Drew Taylor spoke to the filmmaker to find out how he did it.
Cinemark Pops: In this week’s The Ledger, Jon Lafayette writes on how this year’s box office streak has helped Cinemark’s stock to soar.
Level Up: “Super Mario Galaxy Movie” is the first film of 2026 to hit $1 billion at the box office.
Concession Stand
Wrap readers knew it first: We reported exclusively that Henry Cavill will star opposite Kevin Hart in a Netflix action comedy for director McG.
The art director of “Obsession” went public with her $7,000 wage on the film as it soars at the box office, sparking discussion about the indie film industry.
Taylor Swift fans knew it months ago: The singer-songwriter wrote an original song for “Toy Story 5.” Oscar incoming?
Tom Holland called Tom Rothman personally to ask to delay production on “Spider-Man 4” so he could make “The Odyssey for Universal.
“You’re Next” and “The Guest” filmmaker Adam Wingard is back to making delightfully weird little action movies, this time for A24.
Zack Snyder is tackling a redo of John Carpenter’s “Escape From New York.” Godspeed.
Anna Kendrick will direct Netflix’s adaptation of the beloved bestseller “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.”
Streaming Corner
- TheWrap exclusively reported this week that “War Machine 2” is happening at Netflix, just as the sci-fi actioner starring Alan Ritchson entered the streamer’s list of its most-watched original movies ever. Director Patrick Hughes told Drew Taylor all about his plans for the follow-up. “It’s expanding that world, but at the same time it’s not doing what’s expected,” he said before adding, “It’s fucking big.”
What I’m Watching
“Backrooms” is a really assured and visually stunning piece of filmmaking from Kane Parsons. His handle on the world and tone are, unsurprisingly, confident since he’s been playing in this sandbox for years, but as he jumps out of the found-footage style of his YouTube videos, Parsons uses different lenses and shot compositions well to evoke feelings of discomfort and tension in the viewer. It’s a great showcase of Parsons’ inherent talent, but also clearly through the lens of someone whose voice has been shaped significantly by video games, which I think makes “Backrooms” even more interesting.
