Welcome to the first Monday Morning Box Office Hangover Report of June 2026!
New To The Monday Morning Box Office Hangover Report?
Every Monday, here on the Monday Morning Box Office Hangover Report we break down the weekend box office: who won, who didn’t, and what the numbers are really saying about what audiences want right now. It’s your post-weekend debrief with a little cocktail bite. The intro language and structure follow your established template.
Opening Pour
This last weekend was SCRARY good. Backrooms came screaming in with a blood curdling cry and a $81.5 million domestic and $118 million worldwide opening, instantly becoming A24’s biggest opening ever (again) and the biggest horror debut of 2026 so far. And somehow that still was not the only insane story at the box office, because Obsession pulled another $26.4 million in weekend three, which means it still has not dropped below its opening-weekend earnings. That is the kind of hold that makes executives sit up straight and start pretending they always believed in weird little horror movies from YouTubers.
Top 5 Domestic Films
(Weekend estimates, May 29 to May 31, 2026)
- Backrooms – $81.5M
- Obsession – $26.4M
- Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu – $25.0M
- Michael – $11.7M
- The Breadwinner – $7.5M
Recap
This was one of those weekends where a genre takes over and executives and Monday morning pundits say “it’s a whole new ballgame in the industry.” Backrooms opened in 3,442 locations and delivered $81.5 million in North America on a reported $10 million budget, while Obsession kept defying box office logic in its third week in with $26.4 million and a domestic total of $104.7 million. Meanwhile, The Mandalorian and Grogu dropped to third with $25 million, off about 69% from opening weekend. The headline is horror, the subheadline is that younger audiences really showed to see new fun fare.
Highlights and insights
1) Backrooms did overwhelming business
There is no softer way to say it. Backrooms exploded out of the gate in its first weekend. AP reports the film made $81.5 million domestically and $118 million globally in its first weekend, which made it a record opening for A24 and gave director Kane Parsons, at age 20, the distinction of becoming the youngest director to have a No. 1 film globally. EW also called it A24’s biggest-ever opening and the biggest horror premiere of 2026 so far.
2) This is not just a horror win. It is a youth-culture win
AP says 86% of the audience was under 35, more than half were under 25, and 44% were under 21. That is not random turnout. That is a very specific audience showing up hard for a movie born from internet-native horror and a creator they already knew. If studios were still wondering whether digital-born creators can drag real people into real theaters, this weekend answered that question with a baseball bat. Note, this isn’t totally new – TV commercial directors made this jump in the 90s.
3) Obsession is doing something genuinely weird
Here is the stat that deserves its own drink. In weekend three, Obsession made $26.4 million, and AP explicitly notes that three weekends in, it still has not dropped below its opening weekend earnings. Its domestic total is now $104.7 million, and EW puts its worldwide total at $148 million. That kind of staying power is rare for any genre and especially nuts for horror. People previously reported that its second weekend increase was being treated as essentially unheard of for a wide-release horror title, with Jason Blum flatly saying, “This doesn’t happen in horror.” Jason, we are not sure this happens in ANY genre. So no, this is not normal behavior. This movie is acting possessed.
4) The franchise casualty this weekend was The Mandalorian and Grogu
AP reports The Mandalorian and Grogu fell about 69% in its second weekend, landing in third with $25 million. EW notes it still managed $52.8 million globally for the weekend, but domestically it got edged out by Obsession, which is a hell of a sentence to type about a Star Wars movie. Its worldwide total now sits at $246.6 million. That is not disaster territory yet, but it is definitely not the story Disney wanted after Memorial Day.
5) Michael keeps quietly being a tank
Fourth place with $11.7 million in weekend six is not sexy, but AP notes the film has now reached $339.9 million domestic. It is no longer fighting for headlines, but it is still hanging around the chart like a veteran who knows how to win ugly. In a weekend dominated by brand-new horror chaos, that kind of consistency still matters.
Who Had the Rough Morning After?
This week’s rough morning after belongs to The Mandalorian and Grogu. Not because $25 million is pathetic in a vacuum, but because getting knocked into third by a third-week horror holdover is not exactly what a giant franchise opener wants on its Monday report. You can also spare a thought for Pressure, which opened in seventh with $5.8 million, and The Breadwinner, which cracked the Top 5 with $7.5 million only to be completely ignored by the much louder horror narrative swallowing the weekend whole.
What’s next?
The obvious question is whether Backrooms has legs or whether this was one giant eventized opening fueled by curiosity and online fandom. AP notes the audience response was a more mixed B- CinemaScore, which suggests it may not play like a broad mainstream crowd-pleaser. But it also arrived with a young audience, packed screenings, and real urgency. Meanwhile, Obsession is now the movie everyone in town has to keep side-eyeing, because if it keeps holding like this, it stops being a sleeper hit and starts becoming one of the defining box office stories of the year.
Monday Morning Box Office Hangover Report Final Pour
This weekend belonged to horror. Not politely. Not a little. Completely. Backrooms opened like a monster, Obsession kept rewriting the rules of how a low-budget horror breakout is supposed to behave, and the rest of the marketplace mostly stood around trying not to get trampled. If theaters were looking for proof that younger audiences will still show up in force for something that feels fresh, weird, and communal, they got it. Loudly. 🍸🍿
