| June 12, 2026 
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Hi, film fans! I was on vacation for two weeks and returned to a whole new movie landscape. It’s very exciting! If you’ve been following the box office news from my colleague Brooks Barnes, you know: “Obsession” and “Backrooms,” low-budget horror films made by Gen Z YouTube auteurs, have taken theaters by storm. “Obsession,” from Curry Barker, opened with a decent $17 million domestically in mid-May and, thanks to strong word of mouth and repeat viewing, grew week after week. It now stands at $156 million. “Backrooms,” from Kane Parsons, who’s turning 21 this month, opened to an astounding $82 million at the end of May and has been packing them in every since. (Current total: $138 million.) In each case, the vast majority of the audience is under 35, a surprising development at a time when conventional wisdom says young fans are more interested in their phone screens than the big screen. This feels like such a sea-change moment — some are likening it to the 1960s and ’70s when the old studio system died — that we asked the critics Alissa Wilkinson and Jason Zinoman to weigh in. Wilkinson reminded us that Hollywood has always survived by appealing to the youth segment. “It’s just that executives often are hopelessly out of touch with what young people actually want, how they experience media, what they’re looking for.” To Zinoman, the author of “Shock Value: How a Few Eccentric Outsiders Gave Us Nightmares, Conquered Hollywood and Invented Modern Horror,” what’s interesting about these movies “is not what’s new about them — horror is always popular — but how they rediscover some essentials from the past,” like fear of the unknown and other tropes. I hope to better understand what’s happening, but first I need to see these films. They were sold out when I tried to go last weekend! Whatever you decide to watch, enjoy the movies! | STREAMING RECOMMENDATIONS | |
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