A24 just scored one of the most profitable opening weekends of the year. The Backrooms feature film debuted to an estimated $81 million at the domestic box office against a lean $10 million production budget. That immediate financial return means a sequel is essentially inevitable, and director Kane Parsons is already confirming his long-term plans for the franchise.
In a recent interview outlining his roadmap for the property, Parsons revealed that making sequels has been his strict intention since 2022. The 2026 horror adaptation stars Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve, centering on a struggling used furniture salesman who accidentally discovers an interdimensional portal. That gateway leads directly into the internet-famous maze of liminal, yellow-wallpapered office spaces.
The transition from viral sensation to theatrical hit is a highly lucrative victory for A24, along with co-producers Atomic Monster and 21 Laps Entertainment. The entire mythology originated from a single 2019 4chan post before Parsons, then a teenager, uploaded his first “The Backrooms (Found Footage)” video to YouTube on January 7, 2022, according to a detailed report by Forbes.
Parsons built those original shorts using Blender and Adobe After Effects. Now that he has Hollywood resources at his disposal, he admitted he would have a “very hard time” walking away from the universe he created.
Cinematic sequels are not his only focus moving forward. Parsons also teased a return to his original YouTube channel to continue telling parallel, smaller-scale stories within the Backrooms universe online, a strategy Forbes verified alongside his box office figures. The studio machinery is now expected to spin up production on Backrooms 2 as the first film continues its theatrical run.