For years, Hollywood worried that YouTube was stealing its audience. As younger consumers spent more time watching online creators, studios feared that movies were becoming less relevant. Now Hollywood is trying a different strategy: bringing YouTubers into the movie business. This summer, Backrooms, a horror movie directed by 20-year-old YouTube creator Kane Parsons, earned $81.5 million in its opening weekend. The movie only cost $10 million to make, and it made nearly as much money as Disney’s latest Star Wars blockbuster, which cost more than $165 million. Another YouTuber-directed horror film, Obsession, has earned more than $300 million after being made for less than $1 million. Together, these successes suggest that YouTube is becoming an unlikely source of Hollywood talent.

The shift reflects a simple business challenge. Making movies is expensive, and studios are always looking for directors who are worth betting on. In the past, they often found new talent through film schools, independent movies, or television. Today, YouTube offers another path. Creators spend years making videos, testing ideas, and learning how to keep viewers interested. They also build audiences along the way. By the time a studio hires them, executives can see years of work online and how audiences responded to it. In a business where success is hard to predict, that makes YouTube a useful place to find new directors.

For moviegoers, the trend helps explain why internet creators are suddenly making the jump to theaters. But studios aren’t hiring YouTubers just because of their online popularity. They are betting that creators who understand younger consumers can help bring those audiences back to the movies. According to exit polls, 86 percent of Backrooms viewers were under 35, and more than half were under 25. Hollywood spent years worrying that YouTube was creating a generation of viewers who cared more about online videos than movies. But films like Backrooms and Obsession suggest it may also be creating the next generation of film directors.

Questions: 

  1. Why are Hollywood studios hiring YouTube creators to make movies?

  2. What are some potential advantages for bringing in YouTubers to make major Hollywood movies?