Okay, Natalie, what time is it?

It's 836, I want to say, in the morning, to be clear.

We're going to see obsession, which is going to be scary.

So you're somebody who's reported on like cartels.

Yes, yeah.

Where are you out of nervousness?

I'm terrified.

This is different.

From the New York Times, I'm Natalie Kitchorewaffe.

This is the Daily.

For years, Hollywood's been trying to solve an existential problem, how to get young people to go to the movies.

And then, this summer, it happened at an unthinkable scale, thanks to two low-budget horror films made by 20-something directors, which drove Gen Z to the theaters

in such high numbers that I had to go to the movies to find out what was behind it.

I'm going to get so much food. I'm going to stress eat everything in this theater.

Today, my colleague Kyle Buchanan explains what younger audiences saw in these films and how they've energized an entire industry.

It's Tuesday, June 16th.

I don't know. I literally don't know why I agree to do this. We should have gotten Michael to do this.

Hello.

Kyle, I'm really excited to have this conversation in part because I need therapy after watching both of these movies.

We are here because something crazy is happening at the box office right now.

And this is your world. This is your beat. Tell me what is going on.

Something crazy is happening and it's still happening. We have two movies, obsession and backrooms that are such runaway successes that they basically shocked the industry. They were made for almost no money by young people who got their start on

...