RELEASE DATE, PLATFORMS & BOX OFFICE PERFORMANCE Directed by YouTube creator Kane Parsons in his feature debut and written by Will Soodik, the science fiction psychological horror film Backrooms premiered at the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica on May 7, 2026, before receiving a wide theatrical release in North America on May 29, 2026. Distributed by A24 and produced alongside Shawn Levy's 21 Laps Entertainment and James Wan's Atomic Monster, the feature ran 108 minutes. Mounted on a modest production budget, the film emerged as an unprecedented box office smash, opening to $38 million domestically and surpassing $400 million worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing release in A24 history. WHERE TO WATCH & STREAMING AVAILABILITY Following its record-breaking theatrical run, Backrooms became available across major digital video-on-demand storefronts, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Google TV, and Fandango at Home, for purchase and rental in 4K Ultra HD with HDR10, Dolby Vision, and spatial audio support. For subscription streaming, the film is hosted exclusively on Max as part of A24's pay-one output agreement. Physical home media releases on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, and DVD feature behind-the-scenes featurettes detailing the transition from viral web series to studio feature, director audio commentaries, and deleted scenes. INTRIGUING FACTS & TRIVIA The feature film is a direct adaptation of the viral YouTube found-footage short films created by director Kane Parsons when he was just sixteen years old, based on the popular internet creepypasta. Director Kane Parsons was only twenty years old when the film hit theaters, making him one of the youngest directors in Hollywood history to helm a major studio theatrical release that crossed the multi-hundred-million-dollar box office threshold. The lead cast features Oscar-nominated actor Chiwetel Ejiofor alongside acclaimed Norwegian actress Renate Reinsve. BACKSTORY & THEMATIC ANALYSIS Set in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the narrative centers on a secretive research organization known as the ASYNC Foundation, which inadvertently punches a rift in spacetime while attempting to solve global housing and storage crises. This catastrophic breach opens a gateway into "The Backrooms"—an infinite, surreal labyrinth of yellow wallpaper, damp carpeting, flickering fluorescent lighting, and hum-buzz acoustics that exists outside normal reality. When a team of researchers and an unsuspecting civilian (Chiwetel Ejiofor) fall through the floorboards of reality into the endless yellow maze, they must navigate shifting spatial geometry, hostile anomalous entities, and mounting psychological exhaustion to locate a viable extraction point back to the real world. Thematically, Backrooms explores liminal anxiety, corporate hubris, spatial isolation, and existential dread. By transforming a mundane suburban office aesthetic into an inescapable cosmic trap, the story highlights humanity's helplessness when confronted with forces beyond natural comprehension. BEHIND-THE-SCENES INSIGHTS Director Kane Parsons and production designer Jeremy Cox constructed massive practical soundstage sets featuring endless yellow hallways, allowing actors to physically navigate claustrophobic corridors alongside digital extensions. The film seamlessly blends period-accurate analog VHS camera textures with modern digital cinematography, preserving the distinct found-footage aesthetic that made the original web series a global online phenomenon. Through its phenomenal box office run, innovative visual language, and viral origin story, Backrooms stands as a defining landmark for internet-created cinema.