Backrooms (2026) - $301.8 Million

Proving that the new wave of cinema is being led by internet creators, 20-year-old YouTuber Kane Parsons shocked the industry with his record-breaking feature debut. While the literal sci-fi premise tracks a failed architect and his therapist who discover a portal leading to a labyrinth of yellow-walled, fluorescent-lit office spaces inhabited by malformed entities, the true cinematic subtext completely moves past internet creepypasta lore to deliver a devastating allegory about psychological trauma, avoidance, and toxic escapism. The impossible, infinite rooms serve as a physical manifestation of compartmentalised grief and the architecture of avoidance - a literal space where characters build an interior life out of the memories and past experiences they refuse to unpack. The horror brilliantly exposes how turning inward to live in a comfortable, frozen loop of the past to escape present pain turns your own mind into an inescapable, consuming prison. Released in cinemas by A24, the $10 million project shattered expectations with a historic $81 million domestic opening weekend before storming past a massive $301.8 million globally to become the studio's highest-grossing film in history.