Hollywood is reportedly sifting through Reddit to spot the next big thing, and Backrooms’ success was the impetus

Hollywood is officially mining Reddit for its next blockbuster, and honestly, it makes total sense given how the industry is shifting toward digitally native talent. After the massive $118 million global box office run of Backrooms, it’s clear that studios are paying close attention to where these stories originate, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The film, which stars Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve, really proved that internet-born concepts have serious legs.

The tech platform is built around subreddits, which are communities focused on specific topics ranging from the incredibly broad to the hyper-niche. One of those communities is r/backrooms, which actually formed after a post on the image board 4Chan sparked the idea for that fantastical and dreary world. Jim Squires, the chief marketing officer of Reddit, says, “It started back in 2019, and it was where people were coming together to really take this simple concept into all these discussions and the lore-building that happened in there.”

Kane Parsons, who went by the pseudonym Kane Pixels at the time, took that concept and ran with it. He created a video series on YouTube that eventually led to the A24 feature film. It’s a perfect example of how the platform functions as an incubator. A moderator on the r/movies subreddit, who goes by the username SanderSo47, believes the success is all about community engagement. He says, “Reddit has helped build communities on different topics, and that includes internet phenomena. The bigger the community, the bigger the opportunity to create something worthwhile.”

Hollywood agencies are treating Reddit as a gold mine of ideas

SanderSo47 also points out that users aren’t just passive observers. He explains, “Users not only witness the concepts, but they also help contribute with new ideas. There’s a lot of material to explore. It’s just about finding the right talent. Going back to r/movies, we had a lot of updates for the project in the past three years, and it all led to high engagement from our users: Every trailer, every poster, every interview, it all built awareness and more curiosity. It’s no surprise that this, along with Obsession, has been one of the best titles we’ve had in the subreddit for discussion.”

Hollywood is clearly pivoting toward these types of creators, and agencies are now treating the platform as a gold mine. One agency veteran mentioned that their assistants have identified a bunch of subreddits and short stories that could lead to compelling ideas.

It’s not just about finding existing IP, though. The platform, which was founded in 2005 and counts the Newhouse family as its largest individual investor, is increasingly where studios can uncover new talent. Squires calls it a “real-time IP incubator of sorts, with moderators and communities that are cultivating these spaces where stories and fandoms can grow organically.”

This trend extends to horror communities like r/nosleep, where people write and read original stories. A notable project currently in development is a film produced by and starring Sydney Sweeney called I Pretended to Be a Missing Girl, which originated from the subreddit.

Squires sees the platform as a powerful tool for industry professionals. He says, “I think of Reddit as the most powerful focus group that’s ever existed. So that’s both for discovering ideas you may not have thought of but also for testing ideas and interacting with the communities to understand how things are being received and what’s happening.”

He adds that when a studio wants to develop an idea, it can reach out to the moderators and the people involved to make deals directly. If needed, the platform will help facilitate those conversations. It’s a smart move for studios to get involved early. Entertainment content captured 240 billion views on the platform over the past year, and research with Samba suggests that marketing campaigns from entertainment companies can drive an 18 percent incremental lift in viewership.

Squires emphasizes that authenticity is the key to success here. He says, “We really foster and encourage brands or movie studios or directors to use the tools — organically as well as the paid marketing tools — to drive scale and to get in front of those audiences. I always advise brands, do exclusive AMAs [ask me anything Q&As] that people might be interested in — that always fosters and brings true fans out.”

Parsons actually held an AMA on r/movies about Backrooms that pulled in more than 1,400 comments. It was a full-circle moment for a creator who built his career on the internet. As SanderSo47 puts it, the future of the platform in Hollywood looks promising. He says, “The one hope is that it can look at this place not as a place for discussion for movies but as a place where there can be future talent, where their efforts pay off, which can lead to big opportunities.”