De Luca Credits YouTube Filmmakers for $85M-$106M Box Office Breakouts

2 articles · Updated · Deadline · May 30

$85 million to $88 million for A24’s Backrooms and $106 million for Focus Features’ Obsession prompted Warner Bros. co-chair Michael De Luca to argue that YouTube-bred filmmakers arrive with unusually well-tuned audience instincts.
De Luca said creators such as Kane Parsons and Curry Barker spend years refining work online, taking subscriber feedback through repeated iterations that amount to “a billion test screenings” before a feature reaches theaters.
That audience connection also reshapes marketing, he said, pointing to Warner’s push into digital and creator-led promotion on films including Barbie, where online communities amplified social buzz and helped fuel the Barbenheimer moment.
De Luca tied the lesson to Warner’s broader strategy of protecting filmmaker relationships and maintaining a wide label slate, while acknowledging past missteps by saying the studio’s “popcorn experiment” cost it Christopher Nolan and a shot at Oscars for both Barbie and Oppenheimer.

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