{"id":675260,"date":"2026-05-31T03:11:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T03:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/675260\/"},"modified":"2026-05-31T03:11:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T03:11:08","slug":"michael-de-luca-on-why-backrooms-obsession-are-working-at-box-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/675260\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael De Luca on Why ‘Backrooms’, ‘Obsession’ Are Working at Box Office"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tWhile there was no conversation about the elephant in the room\u2013 the pending Paramount Warner Bros<\/a> Discovery merger \u2014 at Warner Bros. Motion Picture Co-Chair Michael De Luca<\/a>\u2018s Produced By panel this afternoon, the studio boss took time to give props to the zeitgeist going on at the weekend box office, read the YouTube creators Kane Parsons<\/a> and Curry Barker<\/a> who are setting fire respectively with A24\u2019s Backrooms<\/a> and Focus Features\u2019 Obsession<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\n\tWhy do these guys work at the box office with Parsons delivering A24\u2019s biggest opening ever at the North American B.O. with $85M-$88M and Barker with Focus Features record stateside hit, Obsession clearing $106M this weekend?<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThey hone their craft online. Kane worked on Backrooms for five years,\u201d said De Luca, \u201cThese filmmakers are in a dialogue with their audience from the word \u2018Go\u2019. Their subscribers have direct input in each iteration of these things.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cBy the time you get to the movie, they\u2019ve had a billion test screenings.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tDe Luca quipped, \u201cwe work with a lot of directors, who the last thing they want to do is sitting in a screening in Oxnard or Dallas or Phoenix, and waiting for that focus group to start tearing the movie to shreds. It\u2019s the polar opposite with these filmmakers, not that they don\u2019t have strong opinions or artistic vision, but they\u2019re making movies for their audience who have been subscribing to their channels for years. That\u2019s been the proving ground. So by the time the movies come out, they\u2019re calibrated to please that audience.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tThe studio exec also spoke about the strength of digital and online advertising in movie marketing campaigns, especially when the creators work with you. It was part of De Luca and Pam Abdy\u2019s revamp of the Warner marketing department. \u201cChase Infiniti got Leonardo DiCaprio to do TikTok!\u201d He also referred to how the creator community embraced Barbie social content when it was rolling out, making a big difference. De Luca gives credits to Tom Cruise for spurring the Barbenheimer effect when he posted on social a photo with tickets to both movies. <\/p>\n

\n\tIn talking about Oppenheimer, De Luca mentioned that Warner\u2019s \u201cpopcorn experiment cost the studio Chris Nolan. We could have been at the Oscars with both Oppenheimer and Barbie.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tEmphasizing the importance of filmmaker relationships, who he truly believes are the real IP, not the content itself, \u201cYou can\u2019t fumble these balls,\u201d De Luca told the packed theater on the Universal lot where the Produced By Event was taking place. <\/p>\n

\n\tWarner\u2019s strength is \u201cour label strategy, having something for everyone\u201d said De Luca who gave props to the New Line\u2019s Richard Brener, new genre label Clockwork\u2019s Christian Parkes, DC\u2019s James Gunn and Peter Safran, Warner Bros Picture\u2019s Animation\u2019s Bill Damaschke and the main motion picture group\u2019s production president Jesse Ehrman (who literally interviewed De Luca for a producing gig on A Minecraft Movie some time ago, and passed over him). De Luca gave a shoutout to Ehrman for taking the time to develop the movie right over a decade.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThere\u2019s not crystal ball for box office success in regards to what make you buy a ticket. It\u2019s an active decision when you go to a theater and surrender your devices. There\u2019s no algorithm. No one can predict that decision. You just try to get enough movies on screen in front of people,\u201d said De Luca. <\/p>\n

\n\tDe Luca\u2019s discussion was moderated by the Oscar winning producer of the studio\u2019s latest One Battle After Another, Sara Murphy, who the studio boss mentioned gave Warners their first Best Picture since 2013, as well as MGM\u2019s first Oscar Best Picture nomination with Licorice Pizza in 2022 since 1988\u2019s Rain Man. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While there was no conversation about the elephant in the room\u2013 the pending Paramount Warner Bros Discovery merger…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":675261,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[247168,82568,88,263731,90109,85043,5251],"class_list":["post-675260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-backrooms","tag-curry-barker","tag-entertainment","tag-kane-parsons","tag-michael-de-luca","tag-obsession","tag-warner-bros"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=675260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675260\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/675261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=675260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=675260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=675260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}