Chiwetel Ejiofor in “Backrooms” and A24 Shop’s “Backrooms” wallpaper.
A24/A24 Shop
One of the hallmarks of Kane Parsons’ hit horror thriller Backrooms is the yellow wallpaper that adorns the film’s creepy liminal spaces, so the film’s studio, A24, decided to make it available to fans.
Parsons’ Backrooms and his fellow YouTube director Curry Barker’s Obsession have been dominating the headlines this week, mainly because the YouTube filmmakers delivered a vicious 1-2 punch to Disney’s Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu over the weekend.
Backrooms opened with an $81.4 million in North American ticket sales, while Obsession, in its third weekend of release, earned another $27.5 million to boost its domestic tally to $105.7 million. The Mandalorian and Grogu, meanwhile, took a 69% dive in business from its opening weekend domestically to earn $24.4 million.
But here is where the numbers really matter: Backrooms — with a bargain basement $10 million production budget and Obsession, with a paltry $750,000 price tag — booted the $165 million-budgeted Mando and Baby Yoda movie from its No. 1 domestic box office opening May 22-24 to No. 3 in its second weekend frame in one fell swoop.
Of course, The Mandalorian and Grogu, being a Star Wars spinoff film, has plenty of marketing muscle behind it, including action figures — an idea that the space opera’s creator George Lucas had nearly 50 years ago that forever changed the landscape of movie marketing.
But, as A24 has clearly realized, there are plenty of things to sell in your movie’s space — liminal or otherwise — to help keep its audiences’ memories of the film intact long after the credits roll.
The Yellow Is Not Mellow In ‘Backrooms’
In Backrooms, struggling discount furniture store owner Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor) discovers in the basement of his showroom a portal that leads to an alternate dimension (dubbed in the online story’s lore as “The Backrooms”). On the other side is a maze of rooms, all with yellow wallpaper, that seem to go on forever.
While some of the rooms are empty, others contain everyday objects situated in a bizarre manner. Also lurking are evil entities that don’t treat strangers wandering in their liminal spaces too kindly. Once Clark becomes trapped in The Backrooms, his therapist, Mary (Renate Reinsve), enters the haunting, surreal spaces looking for him.
To capitalize on Backrooms mania, A24 is selling panel replicas of the creepy yellow wallpaper seen in the film for $60 each. Each panel measures 48 inches in height and 30 inches in width and is self-adhesive. For hardcore fans who want to cover an entire wall, A24 has a room calculator tool on the ordering page to figure out how many panels will be needed to complete the Backrooms experience.
Cap’n Clark’s Ottoman Empire T-shirt.
A24 Shop
For Backrooms fans who want a smaller replica of the yellow wallpaper, A24 is also offering for pre-order an 11” x 17” self-adhesive poser for $25. For fans who would prefer to wear their memories, the A24 site has for pre-order a “Cap’n Clark’s Ottoman Empire” T-shirt for $40. The logo of the store is on the front of the T-shirt, while the back has a logo of the film’s creepy pirate mascot, the location of the store and a rundown of all its sale items.
The Backrooms items aren’t the only offerings on the A24 retail site based on the indie film studio’s movies. Other items currently on the site include Marty Supreme orange ping pong balls and a Wheaties box featuring the film’s star, Timothée Chalamet, as well as a Pearl tree topper based on Ti West and Mia Goth’s X film trilogy.
Backrooms is playing in theaters nationwide.