'Backrooms' and 'Obsession' Won the Weekend

The $80-million-plus debut of Backrooms, from 20-year-old first-time director Kane Parsons, coupled with Curry Barker’s low-budget hit Obsession increasing its take for the second weekend in a row, is essentially without precedent. As box office analysts sort through the data from this past weekend—the youngest director ever to top the box office; the first non-Christmas wide release to grow across three consecutive weekends since E.T.—excitement is building over the reality that not only is Gen Z going to the movies, they’re making their preferences known. The apparent generational shift provides an answer to what had seemed like a generational crisis: with Boomers and Millennials falling out of the moviegoing habit, Gen Z is more excited about going to the movies than ever. But there’s another, broader story to be told about the box office. Two horror movies chasing the same cohort of young people, both selling out theaters at the same time. Welcome back, Barbenheimer.