Star Wars: Craters and Backrooms: Obsession achieve impressive box office figures.

      This weekend at the box office, Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu faced significant competition, not from The Galactic Empire or other Disney properties, but from Gen Z audiences flocking to two highly praised horror films. The results are remarkable.

      A24’s Backrooms grossed an impressive $81 million at North American ticket offices, while Obsession achieved the unique milestone of surpassing its earnings from the previous two weekends, bringing in $26.4 million. Both films were helmed by YouTubers, with Backrooms directed by 20-year-old Kane Parsons and Obsession by 26-year-old Curry Barker.

      Backrooms had a production budget of $10 million and pulled in $118 million globally in its opening weekend, marking the biggest debut ever for A24. This success granted Parsons the distinction of being the youngest director with the top box office film. We described Backrooms as “a rather remarkable debut, steeped in existential dread and psychological terror” in our ★★★★ review (which you can read here).

      Obsession’s performance was similarly noteworthy, improving by 10% from the prior weekend and becoming the first film since 1982’s E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial to see increased ticket sales over its first three weekends. This impressive horror film has now accumulated $106 million domestically and $148 million globally, all while operating on a modest budget of less than $1 million.

      With these two hit films taking the top spots, last week's champion Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu experienced a significant 70% decline. The Disney+ spin-off earned $25 million in its second weekend, bringing its domestic total to $137.4 million and its worldwide total to $246.6 million. Disney and Lucasfilm are now hoping for a resurgence of the franchise next summer with Shawn Levy's Star Wars: Starfighter, featuring Ryan Gosling from Project Hail Mary.

      As always, let us know what films you watched this weekend by connecting with us on our social channels @FlickeringMyth…