The wait for a subscription-friendly Backrooms has an end date. A24's yellow-corridor nightmare begins streaming exclusively on HBO Max on Friday, September 25th, with a linear HBO airing the following night, Saturday the 26th at 8pm ET.
This is a different thing from the July digital drop, and the two get muddled constantly. Backrooms hit premium video on demand on July 14th, where renting it ran about $19.99 and buying it $24.99. September 25th is the first time it costs nothing beyond a subscription you probably already have.
The film has taken $393.2 million worldwide, roughly $197.5 million of it domestic, which makes it the highest-grossing release in A24's history. The title it took that from is a recent one: Josh Safdie's Marty Supreme, which had held the studio record since last year at around $191 million.
It opened to $118 million globally, $81.4 million of that domestic, off a wide release on May 29th. Our own opening-weekend report caught it on day one, when the $38 million single-day figure had it third among horror openings ever.
That's a 119-day gap between the theatrical opening and the subscription arrival, which is a long hold by current standards. Most studios move a title to streaming inside 90 days now, and plenty go faster when a movie underperforms. A24 had no reason to hurry. Backrooms was still pulling audiences deep into the summer, and every extra week in theaters was money the streaming window couldn't match.
Kane Parsons turned 20 in June. His debut feature will have played theatrically, sold on demand, and landed on a subscription service before he's old enough to order a drink at the wrap party!
Parsons has said continuing the story has been the intention since 2022, and there were reports of a multi-year first-look arrangement with A24 that could house a follow-up. He has also publicly pushed back on sequel talk, denying that a screenwriter had been hired. Officially, nothing has been confirmed.
The cast, for anyone who skipped it in theaters: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Renate Reinsve, Mark Duplass, Finn Bennett and Lukita Maxwell.
No bonus features or extended cut were announced alongside the streaming date, so what lands on the 25th looks like the theatrical version.
A24 is dropping its biggest earner onto HBO Max in the last week of September, days before October programming takes over. A movie that made most of its money on word of mouth gets one more round, free, during the month when horror viewing peaks.
A24 also has nothing in theaters in October, while everyone else does. Dropping its biggest movie onto HBO Max for free is a cheap way to stay in the conversation without paying for a release date.
Mark the 25th on your calendar. Sequel or no sequel, the biggest movie A24 has ever released lands on a service most horror fans already pay for.
What did you make of the ending the first time around?
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