ScreamWire Daily

$100M domestic in six days makes Kane Parsons’ Backrooms A24’s first film to cross the benchmark stateside and the studio’s biggest North American hit; the $10M co-financed horror smash is at $136M global and already one of the year’s most profitable releases.

Chris Reinacher boards Curry Barker’s Anything But Ghosts, the Blumhouse-Atomic Monster and Focus Features follow-up to Obsession; Aaron Paul, Bryce Dallas Howard, Violet McGraw and Cooper Tomlinson also star.

LuckyChap lines up Sydney Sweeney to star in Hollow, Lindsey Anderson Beer’s gothic erotic take on Sleepy Hollow; Beer will write and direct, with Putnam preemptively grabbing the book and the package heading to studios next week.

$45M-$50M domestic opening tracking for Paramount’s Scary Movie as the franchise leans on nostalgia marketing, including a retro phone popcorn bucket, in a crowded theatrical corridor. The weekend’s split-audience setup is fueling broader horror-adjacent box office chatter across multiple releases.

A new original feature keeps Kane Parsons and Osgood Perkins together, extending the mentorship that helped turn Backrooms into A24’s teen-driven horror breakout. The pairing signals Parsons’ next studio-level genre step after the film’s $80M domestic launch and $100M-plus worldwide run.

YouTube’s Fede Goldenberg is leaning into creator-led horror as Kane Parsons, Curry Barker and Markiplier turn platform-born shorts into theatrical and self-distributed features; the platform now treats release strategy as part of the growth engine.

Original vampire script Beast and the Rat is already in Lee Cronin’s pipeline, and the Mummy director is still eyeing Dracula as a next monster move. Cronin framed the new vampire project as a gritty urban addiction tale, keeping Universal monster-world chatter alive off the back of Evil Dead Rise.

A24’s Goblin is picking up more heat as Inde Navarrette circles the R-rated puppet package after David Mikalson’s script sparked a bidding frenzy and landed at the studio. Skyler Gisondo is also in the mix, with Kenneth Branagh set to voice the title creature.

Steven Schneider boards Henry Chaisson’s sound-driven horror feature as executive producer via Spooky Pictures ahead of Tribeca; Sasha Frolova, Xander Berkeley and Toby Poser star in the debut, co-produced by Points North Films and Restricted Pictures.

Netflix has cameras rolling on ‘Family Pack 2: Renaissance’ in Prague, with Monica Bellucci and Jamel Debbouze leading a new ensemble and François Uzan back to steer the werewolf sequel.

CAA signs Dark Matter author Blake Crouch and writer-producer Jacquelyn Ben-Zekry; Crouch's A24 feature Famous is next up and his Apple TV+ sci-fi series Dark Matter is heading toward season 2.

Caleb Phillips signs with Underground after SXSW Midnighter buzz for cosmic horror thriller Imposters; Blue Finch Films is already pushing global distribution as the Jessica Rothe-led feature draws early buyer interest.

Gersh lands 28 Years Later breakout Alfie Williams in a competitive U.S. rep grab after the zombie-franchise lead became one of 2025’s buzziest young names. Williams is next up in Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia’s supernatural thriller Banquet, keeping him squarely in the genre pipeline.

Anonymous Content expands its relationship with Zachary Wigon into commercial representation after Victorian Psycho’s Cannes breakout; Wigon stays attached across literary and commercial lanes, with UTA and Loeb & Loeb also in the mix.

AMC logged its strongest May attendance since 2019 on the back of horror breakouts Obsession and Backrooms; Focus and A24 each landed major domestic grosses, with Obsession now Focus Features’ top U.S. title.

Breaking Glass Pictures boards North America and GrimmVision takes UK-Ireland/South Africa on Simon Rumley’s Thailand-set kidnapping thriller; theatrical bows are set for August/September after Fantastic Fest and Sitges plays.

Disney+ has taken UK and Ireland rights to Australian horror-comedy Gnomes, with AMC Global Media adding Spain and Portugal after a ZDFneo pre-sale. Screen Australia and VicScreen backed the Victoria-shot series, which is already set on Stan.

U.S. digital and streaming rights to Alex Phillips’ rust-belt giallo Anything That Moves land with Cineverse, setting a July 14 Fandor bow after the festival and theatrical run.

Well Go USA is taking Yeon Sang-ho’s Colony to U.S. theaters this summer after the zombie feature landed an R for bloody violence and language. The release extends the Train to Busan director’s steady run in premium Korean genre exports.

HBO moves Adrian McKinty’s The Chain into a limited series with Michael Sarnoski directing the pilot; the kidnap-by-kidnap thriller comes with premium franchise upside.

David Harbour and Gaby Hoffmann are cast in Little One, Alex Kavutskiy’s feature debut, with Zach Cregger and Roy Lee producing. Hammerstone financed the film and cameras are set to roll in Los Angeles next month.

Amazon MGM scraps its Stargate reboot after a 20-week writers room and UK pre-production, a late-stage casualty of the streamer’s shifting genre strategy. The series had already landed a Prime Video order and was being shepherded as part of the studio’s post-acquisition IP playbook.

Matt Ross has wrapped the Kafka-inspired crime-thriller in Australia, with Black Bear handling international and CAA Media Finance/Range Select on domestic. The William Lashner adaptation pairs Chris Hemsworth and Taron Egerton with a gory supernatural hook as a cockroach-turned-gangster story.

The Horror Section lines up Eli Roth’s first banner release for Aug. 7 on 2,000+ North American screens via Iconic Events Releasing; Nas exec produces through the Mass Appeal partnership.