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The Horror That Outearned Hollywood: Backrooms Hits $400M, Beats Sweeney’s Hit

Kane Parsons’ $400M horror sleeper beat Sydney Sweeney’s biggest hit — and nobody noticed until the numbers added up.

By The Ledger1 min read
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Current hype level46

Backrooms has quietly crossed $400 million worldwide — and it’s not even in the same conversation as the blockbusters. The psychological horror debut from Kane Parsons, a film that slipped past most radar screens, has outgrossed Sydney Sweeney’s biggest hit to date, The Housemaid, which pulled in $400.5 million. That’s not a typo.

Backrooms is now the fifth-highest-grossing independent film of all time globally, and second-highest in the horror category this year. It’s also sitting at #11 on the 2026 global grossers list, just behind Obsession. No fanfare. No red carpet.

Just numbers stacking up in silence. The film earned $81.4 million in its opening weekend domestically, followed by over $197.5 million in North America. Internationally, it cleared $200 million, pushing the total past $400.7 million. The story?

A furniture store owner (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and his therapist (Renate Reinsve) stumble into a labyrinth of endless, liminal spaces beneath their basement. They don’t escape. Neither did audiences. The movie was released on May 29.

And yet, while The Housemaid. An erotic thriller with a sequel already in development, got the spotlight, Backrooms played in the shadows. Now, it’s the one with the cash. The real question isn’t how it did it.

It’s why no one saw it coming.

Box office collection trackerLatest India net, gross and worldwide totals for every film in cinemasOpen →
Tagged#KaneParsons#BoxOffice#Horror#SydneySweeney#TheHousemaid#Backrooms

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This article was written by the CutMirchi desk from the reporting above. Facts are attributed to their original publishers.

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