A24 beats Warner Bros. and Paramount at the summer box office — the first independent studio to pull it off

According to data reported by The Hollywood Reporter, the independent studio A24 closed the American summer cinema season with 5.5% of the domestic box office, leaving behind two Hollywood giants, Warner Bros. (5%) and Paramount (4.5%). It is the first time in history that an independent distributor has finished a summer ahead of a “Big Five” studio.

Deadline’s summer rankings (covering the period May 1 – September 7) show A24 grossed around $244 million in the US, ahead of Warner Bros. ($239.3 million) and Paramount ($219.8 million). Universal led the summer with $1.23 billion, followed by Disney ($1.034 billion), Sony ($1 billion) and Lionsgate ($270 million) — while the summer season as a whole broke the all-time record with $4.76 billion grossed domestically.

The main driver of this success was the horror film “Backrooms”, by 20-year-old director Kane Parsons, based on his viral web series about endless liminal spaces. Shot on a budget of just $10 million, the film opened with $81 million in the US — the biggest opening in A24’s history — and has passed the $400 million mark worldwide, becoming the studio’s most profitable release ever.

Meanwhile, the industry giants endured a difficult summer. Warner Bros. fell 76% compared with the summer of 2025, when “Superman”, “Weapons” and “F1” carried it to second place in the rankings. Paramount’s most successful film of the summer was “Scream 7”, with around $122 million grossed in the US.

The summer also belonged to another micro-budget success: the horror film “Obsession” ($750,000 production cost) by 26-year-old director Curry Barker, which earned $263.4 million domestically and passed $516 million worldwide.