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Arts & Entertainment

Feature: Horror movies are bringing audiences back to theaters. But how long can it last?

A male-presenting person (right) wearing a gray t-shirt and blue jeans and a female-presenting person (left) wearing a bra sit on a bed in a dark room. The male-presenting person looks uncomfortable and the female-presenting person is resting her head on his shoulder.
Bear (Michael Johnston) and Nikki (Inde Navarrette) in Obsession
(
Courtesy Focus Features
)

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The topic:

Horror movies are having a moment. Two of this year's greatest box office successes are two horror films, each from unknown directors with non-IP scripts and relatively small budgets.

A horror darling: Obsession is the unexpected runaway hit of the summer, having grossed over $400 million worldwide on less than $1 million budget. Now almost two months out from its initial release, it is still playing in theaters nationwide.

Another hit: Backed by the studio A24, Backrooms had a budget of $10 million and has grossed over $350 million worldwide. Some of its success can be attributed to it being based on a popular 4Chan post that sparked a webseries and several internet games.

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