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The Town with Matthew Belloni

The Right and Wrong Lessons From ‘Backrooms’ and ‘Obsession’

The Town with Matthew Belloni

The Ringer

Society & Culture

4.31.1K Ratings

🗓️ 2 June 2026

⏱️ 32 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Matt is joined by Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw to discuss what movie studios should learn from the remarkable weekend at the box office, whether this is really like the '70s all over again in Hollywood, the unique timing as 'The Mandalorian and Grogu' struggles at the box office, and more (02:01). Matt finishes the show with a prediction for the 2026 NBA Finals ratings (27:58). Host: Matt Belloni Guest: Lucas Shaw Producers: Craig Horlbeck and Matt Pevic Theme Song: Devon Renaldo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Attention all passengers.

0:09.0

The Uber ride for Jeff's rugby team will depart in five minutes from Platform 15.

0:15.0

Your ride comes with six toilets and a refreshments carriage that you'll empty within five minutes.

0:23.8

Thank you for booking your tickets on Uber.

0:26.7

Trains on Uber.

0:31.4

It is Monday, June 1st. What a weekend at the box office.

0:37.4

Backrooms, the suspense thriller made for $10 million by 20-year-old Kane Parsons based on a 4chan meme and a series of

0:40.3

YouTube videos. It opened to a crazy-sounding 81 million domestic for 824. That's more than three

0:47.5

times the previous biggest opening for that studio. And the second place movie was obsession, made

0:53.4

for less than one million by another YouTuber,

0:56.3

Curry Parker.

0:57.3

That's now crossed 100 million domestic.

1:00.6

Obsession actually grew in its third weekend.

1:03.2

Very, very rare to see that.

1:05.5

These two outsized hits, combined with the performance earlier this year of Iron Lung

1:10.4

from another YouTuber,

1:11.8

that's led to a lot of chatter around town and in the media.

1:15.4

This is a major cultural milestone in movies, people are saying.

1:19.2

It's like the 1970s all over again.

1:21.9

The passing of the torch to a new generation,

1:24.3

a sign that Gen Z has finally asserted itself at the box office, especially

1:28.9

since this weekend saw a crazy drop of nearly 70% for the second weekend of Mandalorian and

...

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