Two theatrical horror films with very modest expectations have earned
strong box-office revenues ahead of the summer season — and with small production and marketing budgets.
A24’s young-skewing horror movie “Backrooms” scored $81 million in
North American box-office revenues and $118 million globally, according to IMDb’s Box Office Mojo.
The movie, from the YouTube short-film series, gave film company A24 the biggest
opening in its history. With a national TV advertising budget of $583,000 before opening this past week — minuscule by major release standards — it was driven by only 20 TV airings, with
39.4 million impressions.
By comparison, average national TV ad spending by major studios for a major-wide release film can be around $15 million to $18 million.
The production budget
was reportedly very small at roughly $10 million. Nearly 90% of the movie’s audience was comprised of filmgoers under 35 years of age, while more than half were under 25.
advertisement
advertisement
One important
factor, although not precisely determined, has been social media. One accessible measure, YouTube, showed a massive 33 million views of the movie’s official 2 minute/18 second film trailer.
NBCUniversal’s “Obsession,” another new horror movie that targets Gen Z, continued to see rising box office revenues over two weekends after its release — a very rare occurrence,
according to analysts.
Now in its third week of release, it earned $26.4 million this past weekend — totaling $104.7 million domestically and $148 million globally. For its debut weekend, the
film took in $17 million, followed by $23.9 million in its second weekend.
National TV advertising for “Obsession” so far is at a modest $1.27 million, from 24 TV commercial
airings, amassing 19.3 million impressions.
Social media and word-of-mouth did much of the work to drive marketing, with YouTube views now totaling 8 million for its trailer.
