Backrooms Director Kane Parsons Would Erase Generative AI

Backrooms crossed $100 million at the domestic box office in six days, the largest domestic total in A24's history. The director behind it, Kane Parsons, called generative AI "genuinely harmful" the same week, saying he would erase it entirely if he could.

A24's First $100 Million Film

The horror film opened to $81 million domestic and $118 million worldwide, more than tripling the studio's previous domestic opening record of $25.5 million, set by Civil War. A24 and Chernin Entertainment produced the film for approximately $10 million.

At 20, Parsons became the youngest director to hold A24's domestic box office record. The $100 million threshold, crossed in six days, was the first time the studio reached that milestone domestically.

"Genuinely Harmful"

In an interview published June 3, 2026, Parsons told Deadline: "If I could snap my fingers and make generative AI disappear forever, I probably would".

He elaborated with Variety: "Creatively, I get no enjoyment from using those tools. It defeats the purpose entirely for me".

Parsons went further on the cultural dimension. "To me, generative AI feels less like innovation than a symptom of a broader cultural and economic rot", he said.

He acknowledged that AI might reduce tedium in certain VFX workflows. But he said the cultural stakes around the technology make impartial discussion difficult, and that he wants to examine what AI represents artistically rather than use it as a production tool.

From Blender to A24

Parsons taught himself Blender software as a student and built the original Backrooms web series from those skills. A24 and Chernin Entertainment developed the series into a feature with a budget of approximately $10 million.

The film was made without generative AI tools. Its performance at the box office, $100 million domestic on a $10 million budget, stands as the strongest debut in A24's history.

The Same Week in Hollywood

The same week Parsons' statements appeared, Martin Scorsese announced a partnership with image generation company Black Forest Labs as an AI adviser. Earlier in 2026, director Boots Riley had pushed back on the Scorsese endorsement directly. The full Scorsese and Black Forest Labs story remains one of the most discussed director AI endorsements of the year.

Parsons is in early development on a Backrooms sequel with A24. He is searching for a writing collaborator and said in June 2026 there is "no meaningful movement" on that yet.

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What the 10-to-1 Return Means for A24

A24 produced Backrooms for approximately $10 million with Chernin Entertainment. The film grossed $100 million domestically in six days. That 10-to-1 return on a theatrical horror film is exceptional by any studio's standard, not only A24's.

The studio's model has always been to find films that audiences discover rather than films that audiences are sold. Backrooms had the additional advantage of a pre existing internet mythology around the source material, which meant a segment of its opening weekend audience arrived already invested in the concept.

A24's previous record holders were all films that performed outside expectations. Civil War, which held the prior domestic opening record, was a political thriller with a $50 million domestic open. Backrooms tripled that on a $10 million budget.

The Chernin Entertainment Partnership

Chernin Entertainment co-produced Backrooms with A24. Chernin's track record includes "Hidden Figures," "The Greatest Showman," and several franchise scale productions. Its involvement gave the Parsons web series a clear path to theatrical development that most internet originated horror projects do not have.

The partnership structure reflects a deliberate move by both companies. A24 provided the distribution platform and curatorial brand. Chernin provided the production infrastructure for a first time feature director. The combination allowed Parsons to scale from a Blender web series to a theatrically released film without passing through the conventional development pipeline.

Parsons on Cultural Rot

Parsons' framing of generative AI as a "symptom of a broader cultural and economic rot" is more specific than a general objection to technology. He is describing a claim about what AI generation represents as a cultural phenomenon, not just what it does as a production tool.

The distinction matters for how his position should be read. Parsons is not saying AI produces inferior results. He is saying the impulse to generate images from prompts reflects something corrosive about how the culture values creative effort. That is an aesthetic and moral argument rather than a technical one.

He acknowledged that AI might reduce tedium in VFX workflows, separating his cultural objection from any claim that AI cannot produce useful output. His objection is to what the widespread adoption of generative tools represents, not to whether those tools work.

From Internet Lore to A24

The Backrooms concept originated as internet native horror. It described an unsettling liminal space that users expanded into a shared mythology across Reddit, YouTube, and TikTok. Parsons was among the early YouTube creators who built visual interpretations of the lore using Blender.

A24's decision to develop the concept as a theatrical feature brought the internet mythology into a conventional distribution structure. The existing audience for the Backrooms concept provided a built in opening weekend. How many of those viewers were already familiar with Parsons' YouTube work before the film's release is unknown, but the concept recognition translated to theatrical attendance.

The Sequel Question

Parsons stated in June 2026 that there is "no meaningful movement" on a Backrooms sequel. He is searching for a writing collaborator rather than working from his own screenplay.

That search reflects a specific production challenge. The first film's success creates commercial pressure for a sequel that matches or exceeds it. Finding a writing collaborator capable of building on the source mythology without diminishing it is the creative bottleneck Parsons has identified.

His refusal to use AI tools in the writing process, which he stated explicitly, narrows the field of potential collaborators but also reflects the consistency of his stated position. A director who called generative AI "genuinely harmful" has a clear boundary around how the sequel's screenplay will be developed.

The 20-Year-Old Record Holder

At 20, Parsons became the youngest director to hold A24's domestic box office record. That fact sits alongside his explicit rejection of the technology most associated with making filmmaking accessible to young creators.

Parsons made Backrooms by learning Blender, not by using generative AI. His path from internet creator to record holding theatrical director ran through traditional craft tools, even if those tools were self taught rather than learned through formal training.

The juxtaposition of his record and his AI position is not a contradiction. It is a data point about what is achievable without generative AI when the underlying craft skills are present. His position on AI is inseparable from his biography.

What the Record Means for A24's Brand

A $100 million domestic opening changes how A24 is perceived by the financial community. The studio has historically operated outside the calculations that govern studio decisions at Warner, Universal, and Disney. A $100 million domestic opening puts it inside those calculations.

That shift has consequences. Investors and partners who were previously indifferent to A24 because its scale was too small for their interest are now paying attention. The pressure to repeat a result of that scale will influence which projects the studio greenlights in the next cycle.

Parsons' horror film did not require a franchise infrastructure, a sequel ready setup, or a recognizable IP beyond the internet mythology it drew from. A24's challenge is to find its next $100 million result without becoming the type of studio that optimizes for that result at the expense of the curatorial identity that made the result possible.

The Craft Argument Parsons Is Making

Parsons' "genuinely harmful" framing is not only about whether AI produces aesthetically inferior results. He is making a claim about what the creative process is for, and who it belongs to.

Learning Blender as a student gave Parsons a specific skill set that translated into a specific visual language. The Backrooms web series was his, in a way that a production made from AI prompts would not have been. His argument is that the process of developing a craft produces something that cannot be replicated by accessing a tool that generates results without requiring the same development.

That argument is not falsifiable in the short term. It is a claim about what art making is, and what it produces beyond the final object. It is also the argument that explains why he wants to examine what AI represents artistically rather than simply use it.

Critical Reception and What It Confirmed

Backrooms received strong reviews alongside its record box office opening. Critics cited practical effects, physical production design, and the Blender built environments as evidence that Parsons' craft first approach produced results audiences responded to.

The combination of critical approval and commercial record is not common for debut horror films. Most genre films in this budget range succeed with one or the other. Backrooms achieved both, which strengthens Parsons' implicit argument that the creative choices he made, including his refusal to use generative AI, were not obstacles to commercial success.

His statements about AI came in the same press cycle as the reviews. The context, a director defending craft alongside a $100 million box office result, gave his cultural argument a specific credibility that a similar statement from a director with a failed film would not have carried.

Parsons is now the highest grossing debut director in A24's history. His position on generative AI is part of the public record of how that film was made.

DGA president Christopher Nolan later cited Backrooms in a July 2026 Telegraph interview as evidence that Gen Z audiences are rewarding authentic craft over AI generated content, pointing to the film's global gross alongside Obsession's $400 million run as market proof of the shift.

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Sources

Deadline | Variety