Christopher Nolan believes ‘Backrooms’ and ‘Obsession’ are proof that cinema is not dying
Christopher Nolan has refuted the claims that cinema is a dying medium, using Backrooms and Obsession as proof that it is alive and well.
The two horror movies, both made by directors in their 20s who made their start on YouTube, have smashed competition out of the park at the box office despite possessing relatively small budgets in comparison.
For Nolan, the success of Kane Parsons and Curry Barker’s respective feature-length debuts has reaffirmed his belief that cinema is going nowhere, as long as directors create movies that make people want to leave their house.
In a new interview with BBC News, he shared, “I think there are a lot of different ways to interest people in coming to the movies, and you see films, there’s some that you’ve seen, films like Backrooms and Obsession, made by very young filmmakers, connecting with their audience, getting young people into cinemas.”
Nolan continued, “I mean, our biggest segment of viewers who are coming to the movies is young people in their 20s, and it always has been.”
The Odyssey director added, “So, I think ever since the 1950s, when television came along, there’s been this tendency in this media to always proclaim, you know, the death of movies and everything. What I hope to do, in the middle of all that, is try, and find a story I can command the resources for, use my opportunity to make a film that I haven’t made before and hopefully bring something fresh to the audience.”
Nolan is not the only illustrious filmmaker to give Parsons and Barker a pat on the back for their cinematic achievements, with Steven Spielberg also recently giving the duo his seal of approval.
“I’m so happy for them. I think it’s so fantastic,” Spielberg said, before adding, “I think it’s great that they had basically very little money, especially Obsession had under $1 million, and the other film had maybe 10 or nine, and they’re doing so well, and I just applaud them.”
After the success of Oppenheimer in 2023, which grossed almost a billion dollars across the globe, Nolan will be hoping his new epic, The Odyssey, enjoys a similar cultural impact when it arrives on the big screen later this month.
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