Backrooms and Obsession vs The Mandalorian & Grogu! What Happened?
May has already been a crazy month at the box office, we’ve had two smaller budget horror films, Backrooms and Obsession doing crazy box office numbers. We also have the latest Star Wars films, The Mandalorian & Grogu not doing great. What’s going on? Here’s my thoughts on everything going on at the box office!
Backrooms & Obsession Box Office
If you haven’t been following recent box office news, Obsession has been absolutely killing it at the box office. The film was made for somewhere between $750,000 to $1 million, and opened to $17 million. That right there would be a great number for a film of that size. But the most impressive part is that in its second weekend, it went up 39% making $23.9 million. Which makes it the only wide released film this century to accomplish that, that’s a huge victory for horror films. We don’t have the exact, final number for its third weekend. But its projections have it going up another 10%, making $26.4 million. Which I believe is the first time since E.T. The Extra Terrestrial released in 1982 that a non-Christmas released movie will make more in its second and third weekend compared to the first weekend. Obsession is absolutely killing it at the box office and is already one of the most profitable films of all time.
The other big piece of news to talk about here, Backrooms is looking to have an $81.4 million opening weekend. This will be one of the biggest openings ever for a horror film and the biggest opening over for an A24 film. That’s an insane number, that a horror made for $10 million is going to have that big of an opening. What’s surprising to me is that it didn’t feel like there was much online chatter about Backrooms prior to its opening. There was some buzz here and there with people excited for this film. Based on the online chatter and what I was hearing, I was not expecting this big of an opening. Early projections several weeks ago had this film opening at $50 million. The piece of this that I think I missed is that the target audience for the film aren’t the people on the internet involved with the film side of social media. The people that are interested in this film are the younger people.
I work at a movie theater, and I worked the ticket booth Friday night. We had to turn so many kids down because they were trying to get into either Obsession or Backrooms, without an adult. Or their parents would come and buy them a ticket but then wouldn’t buy one for themselves. We get parents angry that they’d also have to buy a ticket. It was this whole thing that made things more complicated the other night. I say all of this, because it’s not remotely surprising that these movies are killing it at the box office. The fact that Obsession and Backrooms are absolutely killing it at the box office, I think is a big win. I really dug Backrooms, I wasn’t crazy about Obsession. But it’s a cool win for original horror films, like Obsession and the fact that Obsession and Backrooms were both directed by YouTubers, it’s cool that we’ve reached a point where YouTubers can direct theatrical films that are highly profitable.
The Mandalorian & Grogu Struggles at the Box Office
The other piece of information, The Mandalorian & Grogu is struggling at the box office. Honestly, the fact that The Mandalorian & Grogu is struggling at the box office isn’t too surprising to me. I always thought this film was going to underperform and possibly be the lowest grossing live action Star Wars movie of all time. Making even less than Solo did which was already viewed as a gigantic box office bomb. The Mandalorian & Grogu dropped 69.4%, making $25 million in its second weekend. Which is a disastrous number and holds for a big event film like Star Wars. The movie opened Memorial Day weekend with $81.6 million for the 3-day and $98 million for the four day. Solo back in 2018, had an $84.4 million 3-day weekend, with a $103 million 4-day weekend. That was viewed as a low bar for Star Wars movies, because the December prior you had The Last Jedi open to $220 million. Rogue One had a $160 million opening, and The Force Awakens was shattering box office numbers left, right, and center. When Solo opened to $84 million, that was viewed as a low point. In its second weekend, it dropped $65.2%. That’s already a bad number, The Mandalorian & Grogu is looking to drop significantly more than that.
Keep in mind, when Solo came out it was the weekend after Deadpool 2 that had a $120 million opening. Infinity War had been out for a month and was still doing great numbers. There’s still big movies out with The Mandalorian & Grogu, but not on the same level that Solo did. Another way to put salt in the wound, there’s a chance that Backrooms and Obsession could surpass or be very close to The Mandalorian & Grogu’s domestic box office. That’s very crazy to me, that movies made for a combined $11 million could have similar box office numbers to a $165 million blockbuster, yet alone a Star Wars movie is absolutely crazy and something that I wouldn’t have predicted going into May.
A report came out the other day that they’re adding last minute IMAX screens to Masters of the Universe this upcoming weekend. Keep in mind, Masters of the Universe wasn’t meant to be released in IMAX because of The Mandalorian & Grogu and then Disclosure Day releasing the following weekend. Masters of the Universe is getting IMAX screens because The Mandalorian & Grogu’s box office isn't good. The Mandalorian & Grogu isn’t doing the box office numbers that Lucasfilm and Disney were hoping for, and is looking to be one of 2026’s biggest box office bombs.
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