In today’s Box Office Breakdown, we analyze five new releases:
A24’s Backrooms
Sony’s The Breadwinner
Focus Features’ Pressure
Lionsgate’s Power Ballad
National Geographic’s Time and Water
Plus, a full breakdown of the top ten at the box office this weekend.
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A24’s Backrooms took #1 at the box office with $81.5M domestic. Internationally, it earned $36M. This brings its worldwide total to $117.5M.
This is A24’s top opening film of all time by a massive margin. Here are the previous top three:
Civil War (2024)
$25.5M opening
Marty Supreme (2025)
$15.8M opening (first week in wide release)
The Drama (2026)
$14.4M opening
But more than that, this is the fourth-highest horror opening of all time, including inflation. It’s sitting right behind these juggernauts:
It (2017)
$123.4M opening ($167.8M w/ inflation)
Hannibal (2001)
$58M opening ($108.5M w/ inflation)
Five Nights at Freddy’s (2023)
$80M opening ($86.8M w/ inflation)
This is a remarkable result. The director Kane Parsons is 20 years old. And this film is based on his YouTube series, which has racked up over 220M views on YouTube, with the top video garnering 80M views.
The per-screen average is $23.7K/screen across 3,442 theaters.
The budget was $10M. So A24 is earning massive profits.
Here is the trailer.
Here’s the breakdown of the rest of the top 10:
$26.4M - Obsession (Focus Features)
$104.7M domestic total
$148M worldwide
$750K budget, picked up by Focus for $15M
RT: 96%
Week 3
In its third week, Obsession has once again done something remarkable. It gained 10% over week 2. This is on top of the film’s massive 39% week 2 INCREASE.
This is almost unheard of at the box office. The only other comp we could find for this is this rom-com:
Anyone But You (2023)
$6M opening
$8M week 2 (↑46%)
$9.75M week 3 (↑11%)
Obsession is already Focus Features’ 2nd highest earning film domestically, only outperformed by:
Coraline (2009)
$116.9M domestic total
$188.1M worldwide
This puts director Curry Barker in a rare category of horror directors, one that already has him taking on iconic IP like A24’s new Texas Chainsaw Massacre film.
$25M - Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu (Disney)
$137.4M domestic total
$206.4M worldwide
$114M budget
RT: 62%
Week 2
This film took a massive 69% week 2 drop.
However, this is pretty much performing on par with the previous Star Wars spinoff:
Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)
$84.4M opening (vs. Grogu’s $81.7M)
$29.4M week 2 (65% drop - vs. Grogu’s 69%)
$213M domestic total
$392.9M worldwide
This film will have no problem recouping theatrically.
$11.7M - Michael (Lionsgate)
$339.9M domestic total
$851.3M worldwide
$200M budget
RT: 38% (critics), 97% (fans)
Week 6
Michael is the top-earning biopic of all time.
In its sixth week, Michael is already the highest-earning biopic of all time domestically and is closing in on being the highest-earning biopic of all time.
Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)
$51.1M opening
$216.7M domestic total
$910.8M worldwide
Michael (2026)
$851.3M worldwide (week 6 WW total)
Elvis (2022)
$32.2M opening
$151M domestic total
$288.7M worldwide
Straight Outta Compton (2015)
$60.2M opening ($83.4M inflation adjusted)
$161.2M domestic total
$201.6M worldwide
Walk the Line (2005)
$22.3M opening
$119.5M domestic total
$186.8M worldwide ($312.2M inflation adjusted)
Lionsgate has already recouped.
$7.5M - The Breadwinner (Sony)
$25M production budget
RT: 28% (critics), 88% (fans)
Week 1
This film is performing slightly lower than the average PG-13 comedy by 5%. It is the feature debut of comedian Nate Bargatze, who also serves as the co-writer and producer. Bargatze’s latest stand-up special Your Friend, Nate Bargatze (2024) has racked up about 17.5M views on Netflix.
It’s also the first film to be released theatrically by director Eric Appel (Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, Die Hart).
It will likely not recoup theatrically.
$5.9M - The Devil Wears Prada 2 (20th Century Studios)
$209.4M domestic total
$641.6M worldwide
$100M budget
RT: 78%
Week 5
This has already surpassed the entire take of the first film, including inflation:
The Devil Wears Prada (2006)
$27.5M opening ($44.8M w/ inflation) vs. 2’s $76.7M
$124.7M domestic total ($203M w/ inflation)
$326.6M worldwide ($531.5M w/ inflation)
That would mean Prada 2 will become Anne Hathaway’s top-earning film of all time, in which she is the central star. Although it will not be her highest-earning film of all time, for a movie in which she is part of the ensemble or a co-star:
The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
$160.8M opening
$448.1M domestic total
$1.085bn worldwide
Alice in Wonderland (2010)
$116.1M opening
$334.2M domestic total
$1.025bn worldwide
Interstellar (2014)
$47.5M opening
$203.2M domestic total
$774.6M worldwide
The Devil Wears Prada 2 carries a production budget of $100M and has already recouped.
$5.75M - Pressure (Focus Features)
RT: 86%
Week 1
This is a slightly underwhelming opening for the average war drama - down 18%.
Focus Features has had a few World War II films over the years, so we’ll see where Pressure lands when it finishes its run:
Darkest Hour (2017)
$56.6M domestic total
$150.8M worldwide
Lust, Caution (2007)
$4.6M domestic total
$67.1M worldwide
The Pianist (2002)
$32.6M domestic total
$120.1M worldwide
Previously, Focus had opened all three of these WWII films in limited release and then expanded, so it’s hard to compare exactly with Pressure’s wider release on 1,829 screens.
$4.6M - The Sheep Detectives (Amazon MGM)
$54.5M domestic total
$93.4M worldwide
$75M budget
RT: 93%
Week 4
This is a lovable live-action film with Hugh Jackman and a bunch of talking sheep. It underperformed some similar films:
Peter Rabbit (2018)
$84.1M week 4 domestic total (vs. Sheep’s $54.5M)
$115.3M domestic total
$351.5M worldwide
Christopher Robin (2018)
$77.6M week 4 domestic total (vs. Sheep’s $54.5M)
$99.2M domestic total
$197.7M worldwide
Paddington (2015)
$57.1M week 4 domestic total (vs. Sheep’s $54.5M)
$76.3M domestic total
$268M worldwide
Given The Sheep Detectives’ monstrous budget, it is also unlikely to recoup its budget. But Amazon will walk away happy with the worldwide total, which will surpass $100M as it moves on to Prime.
$2.6M - Passenger (Paramount)
$15.3M domestic total
$25M worldwide
$15M budget
RT: 48%
Week 2
This dropped 70% in its second weekend. And that’s because there were two other major horror films this year that had much higher critical reviews and audience love: Obsession and Backrooms.
$2M - Mortal Kombat 2 (Warner Bros.)
$77.7M domestic total
$125.5M worldwide
$80M budget
RT: 65%
Week 4
This is the highest performing Mortal Kombat film of all time, not including inflation:
Mortal Kombat (1995)
$23.3M opening ($51.2M w/ inflation)
$122.2M worldwide total
Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (1997)
$16.8M opening ($34.9M w/ inflation)
$51.4M worldwide total
Mortal Kombat (2021)
$23.3M opening
$84.4M worldwide
The one caveat here is that the 2021 Mortal Kombat film was released in April 2021 during COVID, so it was released simultaneously on HBO, which lowered its true box office potential.
Here are the lowest-grossing films of the week:
$15.9K - Deep Water (Magenta Light Studios)
$4.3M domestic total
$4.6M worldwide
Cast: Aaron Eckhart, Ben Kingsley
Dir: Renny Harlin (Die Hard 2)
$1.8K /screen average
Week 5
$8.6K - Time and Water (National Geographic)
$20.3K domestic total
Premiere: Sundance
$8.6K /screen average
Week 1
$4.7K - The Python Hunter (Oscilloscope)
$45.7K domestic total
Premiere: SXSW
$787 /screen average
Week 4
Lionsgate’s Power Ballad earned $170K in its opening weekend. This had an outstanding per-screen average of $17K/screen across 10 theaters. The film stars Paul Rudd and Nick Jonas and premiered at SXSW.
Black Bear’s Tuner earned $1.7M in its second weekend. This had a strong per-screen average of $3.7K/screen across 452 theaters. We’ll see where Black Bear lands with this one, as their previous Christy topped out at $1.95M domestically.
Amazing to see. Original voice. Original ideas.
Backrooms has pretty much doubles the initial estimates people had. This and Obsession doing crazy numbers. Love to see it.