A Gen Z Revolution at the Movies
Episode
28 min
Read time
2 min
Topics
Relationships, Investing, Marketing
AI-Generated Summary
Key Takeaways
- ✓YouTube-to-theater pipeline: Both films were directed by creators who built audiences on YouTube before Hollywood. Obsession's Curry Barker (age 26) and Backrooms' Kane Parsons (age 20, signed at 17) bypassed traditional film school entirely. Studios seeking Gen Z engagement should scout YouTube creators with established fanbases rather than relying on conventional development pipelines.
- ✓Franchise fatigue is real and measurable: Obsession and Backrooms generated comparable box office numbers to the first Star Wars film in seven years, despite costing a fraction of the budget. Gen Z audiences demonstrably reject legacy IP hand-me-downs — properties like He-Man toys from the 1980s or decades-old franchises hold no cultural equity with audiences who didn't grow up with them.
- ✓"Corn plating" drives repeat ticket sales: Films that embed ambiguous themes — Obsession's layers around consent, covert narcissism, and relationship anxiety — generate sustained online discourse that pulls audiences back for second and third viewings. Filmmakers should deliberately build interpretive depth into narratives to fuel social media analysis cycles and extend theatrical runs beyond opening weekends.
- ✓Reaction content is now part of the theatrical experience: Gen Z audiences film and post their in-theater reactions, creating a parallel social viewing layer that extends a film's reach far beyond ticket buyers. Films engineered to produce visible, shareable emotional responses — particularly fear or shock — gain organic distribution through platforms like TikTok, functioning as free, peer-generated marketing at scale.
- ✓Protect source material when adapting internet IP: Kane Parsons resisted studio offers for years, citing examples like American Horror Story's failed Backrooms episode as proof that Hollywood strips internet-native content of its appeal. Creators and studios adapting creepypastas, memes, or web series should treat existing online lore and community investment as non-negotiable creative constraints, not starting points to discard.
What It Covers
NYT film reporter Kyle Buchanan analyzes how two micro-budget horror films — Obsession ($750K budget, $265M global gross) and Backrooms (made by a 20-year-old, A24's fastest-ever hit) — drove Gen Z back to theaters in record numbers, revealing what Hollywood has been missing in its approach to younger audiences.
Key Questions Answered
- •YouTube-to-theater pipeline: Both films were directed by creators who built audiences on YouTube before Hollywood. Obsession's Curry Barker (age 26) and Backrooms' Kane Parsons (age 20, signed at 17) bypassed traditional film school entirely. Studios seeking Gen Z engagement should scout YouTube creators with established fanbases rather than relying on conventional development pipelines.
- •Franchise fatigue is real and measurable: Obsession and Backrooms generated comparable box office numbers to the first Star Wars film in seven years, despite costing a fraction of the budget. Gen Z audiences demonstrably reject legacy IP hand-me-downs — properties like He-Man toys from the 1980s or decades-old franchises hold no cultural equity with audiences who didn't grow up with them.
- •"Corn plating" drives repeat ticket sales: Films that embed ambiguous themes — Obsession's layers around consent, covert narcissism, and relationship anxiety — generate sustained online discourse that pulls audiences back for second and third viewings. Filmmakers should deliberately build interpretive depth into narratives to fuel social media analysis cycles and extend theatrical runs beyond opening weekends.
- •Reaction content is now part of the theatrical experience: Gen Z audiences film and post their in-theater reactions, creating a parallel social viewing layer that extends a film's reach far beyond ticket buyers. Films engineered to produce visible, shareable emotional responses — particularly fear or shock — gain organic distribution through platforms like TikTok, functioning as free, peer-generated marketing at scale.
- •Protect source material when adapting internet IP: Kane Parsons resisted studio offers for years, citing examples like American Horror Story's failed Backrooms episode as proof that Hollywood strips internet-native content of its appeal. Creators and studios adapting creepypastas, memes, or web series should treat existing online lore and community investment as non-negotiable creative constraints, not starting points to discard.
Notable Moment
Kane Parsons was born four months after YouTube was founded and taught himself filmmaking entirely through YouTube tutorials and Discord feedback. His original Backrooms short film, built using free software Blender, accumulated 80 million views — created entirely by one teenager with no formal training or budget.
Episode Transcript
Brought to you by the Capital One Savor card. With Savor, you earn unlimited 3% cash back on dining, entertainment, and at grocery stores. That's unlimited cash back on ordering takeout from home or unlimited cash back on tickets to concerts and games. So grab a bite, grab a seat, and earn unlimited 3% cash back with the Sabre card. Capital One, what's in your wallet? Terms apply. See capital1.com for details. Okay. Natalie, what time is it? It's 08:36, I wanna say, in the morning, to be clear. We're going to see Obsession, which is gonna be scary. So you're somebody who's reported on, like, cartels? Yes. Yeah. Where are you on nervousness? I'm I'm terrified. This is different. From the New York Times, I'm Natalie Kitroev. This is The Daily. For years, Hollywood's been trying to solve an existential problem, how to get young people to go to the movies. And then this summer, it happened at an unthinkable scale. Thanks to two low budget horror films made by 20 directors, which drove Gen Z to the theaters in such high numbers that I had to go to the movies to find out what was behind it. I'm gonna get so much food. I'm gonna stress eat everything in this theater. Today, my colleague Kyle Buchanan explains what younger audiences literally don't know why I agreed to do this. We should have gotten Michael to do this. Hello. Kyle, I'm really excited to have this conversation in part because I need therapy after watching both of these movies. We are here because something crazy is happening at the box office right now. And this is your world. This is your beat. Tell me what is going on. Something crazy is happening, and it's still happening. We have two movies, Obsession and Backrooms, that are such runaway successes that they basically shocked the industry. They were made for almost no money by young people who got their start on YouTube way, way, way outside the Hollywood studio system, and now here they are beating Hollywood at their own game. And when we say runaway hits, what do you mean by that? What I mean by that is you have the film Obsession, which is defying gravity at the box office from week to week in ways that have never been done before. And then you also have Backrooms, which became the highest grossing movie ever released by the studio a 24 in the space of just ten days. This is the studio that released films like Everything Everywhere All at Once and Marty Supreme, and Backrooms lapped them like it was nothing. But it's not just that these films are making money. It's also who's going to see them. These are huge, huge hits with Gen z. And talking to people in Hollywood, executives, producers, directors, all sorts of people over the last several years, the number one anxiety I keep hearing is how do we get young people …
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