Kane Parsons already has people talking about a Backrooms sequel less than a week after his debut feature smashed records. The 20-year-old director turned a childhood internet obsession into the biggest opening in A24 history, and the studio’s contract gives him room to keep building inside that strange yellow world.

The film hit theaters May 29 and walked away with $81.4 million domestically and $118 million worldwide in its first weekend. That number crushed every previous A24 debut and marked the largest opening ever for an original horror movie. Parsons, who started posting analog horror shorts on YouTube as Kane Pixels when he was still in high school, suddenly became the youngest director to top the domestic box office.

The Opening Weekend That Changed Everything

Audiences showed up in force. The movie played like a fever dream — long stretches of flickering lights and damp carpet, then sudden jolts that made people grab the armrests. Word spread fast among the same fans who had watched Parsons’ early videos loop on their phones for years. By Monday the domestic total was already climbing past $97 million, and it crossed $100 million domestic by Wednesday.

The cast helped sell the dread. Chiwetel Ejiofor, Renate Reinsve, and Mark Duplass anchored the found-footage style without ever feeling like they were winking at the audience. The production built a massive practical set — reportedly around 30,000 square feet — so the endless offices felt real enough to make viewers’ skin crawl.

You could feel the shift in the room during those first screenings. People who came for the meme stayed because the movie actually delivered the slow-building terror the shorts had promised.

Sequel Buzz Starts Immediately

Sources close to the project told Deadline that Parsons is already looking for a screenwriting collaborator to develop the next installment. His overall deal with A24 covers future Backrooms projects, and he had mentioned during the press tour that he sees room for an anthology approach — new characters dropping into different corners of the same impossible space.

The early numbers made the conversation feel inevitable. When a debut this size happens on a modest budget, studios start asking what comes next before the second weekend even begins.

Parsons Pushes Back on the Details

Then Parsons stepped in front of a microphone and added some necessary friction. On the June 4 episode of The Town podcast he called the specific rumor that he was actively shopping for a writer a “hallucination.” He made it clear he is not chasing legacy IP for its own sake and would rather protect the original idea than rush into extensions that dilute it.

He left the door cracked open, though. Parsons said more stories could still live inside the Backrooms if the right idea appears, but his focus right now sits on original projects that feel personal. That tension — between fan demand and an artist protecting his creation — is exactly what makes the next move worth watching.

Why This One Hit Different

Parsons built the mythology himself, one low-fi video at a time. He turned fluorescent buzz and wet carpet into something that felt both nostalgic and deeply wrong. When A24 came calling he was still a teenager. Now, at 20, he has the kind of opening weekend most directors chase for a career.

The audience split told its own story: heavy Gen Z turnout, strong word-of-mouth, and enough older horror fans who remembered the original creepypasta to push it over the top. That mix rarely happens this cleanly.

What Comes Next

No greenlight exists yet. No cast is attached. No release window has been floated. The project sits in the earliest possible stage — the “what if we kept going” conversation that every hit movie eventually reaches.

Parsons has already proven he can turn a niche internet obsession into something that fills multiplexes. Whether the next chapter stays on YouTube, moves to another A24 feature, or finds some hybrid form will depend on the story he actually wants to tell. The yellow rooms are still there, waiting. The question is whether he walks back in on his own terms.