Years ago Back rooms The film hit theaters with a global box office debut of $118 million, and was the focal point of fan discussion, creativity, and discussion on Reddit.
The technology platform is built around “subreddits,” which are communities focused on specific topics, ranging from broad (sports, movies, etc.) to niche. One such community was r/backrooms, which was formed after a post on the 4Chan imageboard sparked the idea of a fantastical, bleak world.
“It started in 2019, and that was where people came together to really take this simple concept into all of these discussions and build knowledge that happened there,” says Jim Squires, Reddit’s chief marketing officer. Hollywood Reporter.
Ken Parsons, who then used the pseudonym Ken Pixels, took the concept and applied it, resulting in the creation of Back rooms A series of YouTube videos, leading up to the feature from A24.
“Reddit has helped build communities around various topics, including Internet phenomena. The larger the community, the greater the opportunity to create something worthwhile,” says a moderator of the r/movies subreddit who agreed to speak to THR Provided he is identified by his username, SanderSo47. “Users not only witness concepts, they also help contribute new ideas. There’s a lot of material to explore. It’s just a matter of finding the right talent. Coming back to r/movies, we’ve had a lot of updates to the project in the last three years, and it’s all led to great engagement from our users: every trailer, every poster, every interview, it’s all built awareness and more curiosity. It’s no surprise that this, along with maniait was one of the best titles we have in the subreddit to discuss.
While Hollywood appears to be gearing up to pivot to digital creators like Parsons and… mania Director Carrie Parker, Reddit is emerging as a focus (along with obvious suspects like YouTube and TikTok) for clients and executives looking for the next big thing. In fact, one agency veteran says that assistants at their agency have identified a “collection” of stories and short stories that they believe can lead to compelling ideas.
The platform, which was founded in 2005 and now counts the Newhouse family as its largest single investor, has become a place to gauge audiences and increasingly where studios, writers and directors can discover new intellectual property and talent. “It’s almost a real-time IP incubator of sorts, with moderators and communities cultivating these spaces where stories and audiences can grow organically,” Squires says.
This includes backrooms, where the community has helped create a world, but also subreddits dedicated to short stories, or the popular r/nosleep, where people write and read original horror. One of those stories is being developed on Reddit as a feature film produced by and starring Sidney Sweeney called I pretended to be a missing girl.
“I think Reddit is the most powerful focus group ever,” Squires says. “That means discovering ideas you might not have thought of but also testing ideas and engaging with communities to understand how things are being received and what’s happening.” “In the end, then [a studio or producer has] An idea that they want to develop, like Sidney Sweeney’s idea, which is that they eventually connect with the moderators and the right people on the platform to do this, and they do these deals directly, but we will help facilitate them when needed.
Entertainment content increasingly consumes more and more time spent by users on the platform. Reddit says such content on the platform accounted for 240 billion views over the past year, while research it conducted with Samba indicated that marketing campaigns from entertainment companies contributed to an 18 percent increase in viewership for the content in question.
The validity of those efforts is important, Squires says. “We promote and encourage brands, film studios or directors to use the tools – organically as well as paid marketing tools – to increase volume and reach those audiences,” he says. “I always advise brands and do exclusive AMA sessions [ask me anything Q&As] That people might be interested in – that always encourages and attracts true fans.
For example, Parsons did an AMA on r/movies about Back rooms Which attracted more than 1,400 comments — a full-on moment for a creative IP that’s a huge part of the internet.
“The future is always uncertain, but the only hope is that we can look at this not as a place to discuss films, but as a place where future talents can be found, where their efforts pay off, which could lead to great opportunities,” says SanderSo47. “They see what’s popular, and they want some of that. What Parsons built with his short films caught the attention of a lot of communities. He demonstrated a level of originality and creativity that was welcomed in all of these circles.”
