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Backrooms beat Spielberg at the box office — now he wants YouTube horror's next hit

Movie creators are looking to new horizons for the next blockbuster It’s a great time to be a horror fan. Curry Barker’s soul-stirring horror film Obsession raked in $374 million worldwide at the box office and Kane Parson’s creepy-pasta sensation Backrooms wasn’t far behind, bringing in $331 million. It’s clear that the people want a specific kind of horror, and now Disclosure Day director Steven Spielberg is jumping right on that bandwagon with The Mandela Catalogue. As revealed by Deadline, Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment has won the movie rights to the YouTube horror anthology, along with United Artists, as well as Amazon MGM. The movie will be directed by its original creator, Alex Kister, with a screenplay he adapted in collaboration with film producer Tyler Clifton. According to Deadline, the above companies won the rights to the film series “following a highly competitive 11-studio bidding war.” The Mandela Catalogue is a 2021 analog horror TV series created by Kister. Set in the fictional Mandela County in Wisconsin, the story takes a tragic turn when the area is invaded by otherworldly, near-immortal creatures known as Alternates. Their goal? To assume the identities of

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Jul 3, 2026·PolygonT2 · Outlet report
Backrooms beat Spielberg at the box office — now he wants YouTube horror's next hit

Movie creators are looking to new horizons for the next blockbuster It’s a great time to be a horror fan. Curry Barker’s soul-stirring horror film Obsession raked in $374 million worldwide at the box office and Kane Parson’s creepy-pasta…

Read original at Polygon →
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Jul 3, 2026·PolygonT2 · Outlet reportLATEST
Backrooms beat Spielberg at the box office — now he wants YouTube horror's next hit

Movie creators are looking to new horizons for the next blockbuster It’s a great time to be a horror fan. Curry Barker’s soul-stirring horror film Obsession raked in $374 million worldwide at the box office and Kane…

Read original at Polygon →

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Movie creators are looking to new horizons for the next blockbuster It’s a great time to be a horror fan. Curry Barker’s soul-stirring horror film Obsession raked in $374 million worldwide at the box office and Kane Parson’s creepy-pasta…

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