When Is Backrooms on HBO Max? Streaming Date, Time Zones and the HBO Channel Airing

The gist — Backrooms starts streaming on HBO Max on Friday, Sept. 25, 2026, exclusively in the U.S., and the HBO cable channel shows it the next night, Saturday, Sept. 26, at 8 p.m. ET. It is a film, not a series, so the whole 110 minutes unlocks at once.

That's the short answer. The rest of this page is the clock, the plan question and the numbers behind the fastest-growing horror title A24 has ever had.

What time does Backrooms come out on HBO Max?

Warner Bros. Discovery's announcement gave the date and nothing more. No hour. So here is what the service usually does: HBO Max opens new films at midnight Pacific, which is 3 a.m. on the East Coast. It's the same slot our Supergirl HBO Max page tracked two weeks ago.

Treat that as the pattern, not a promise. If the title isn't on your home row at breakfast, search for it by name; rows refresh later than titles go live. Why almost every service lands on a Los Angeles midnight is covered in our streaming release-times guide.

When is Backrooms on the HBO channel?

Saturday, Sept. 26, at 8 p.m. ET. HBO confirmed the linear premiere in the same release as the streaming date. On a West Coast feed, check your local listing — HBO's East and West channels don't always carry a movie at the same local hour.

Most people will never need the Saturday slot. It matters mainly if you pay for HBO through a cable box and haven't set up the HBO Max app that comes with it.

Which HBO Max plan do you need?

Any of them. HBO Max hasn't limited its own films to the ad-free tiers, and nothing in the announcement suggests Backrooms is different. Prices for the Basic with Ads, Standard and Premium plans sit in our plans and prices rundown.

It won't show up on Netflix, Prime Video's subscription catalog or Hulu. Renting it on Prime Video is a separate purchase — Time Out listed it at $19.99 to rent and $24.99 to buy when it went digital in July.

What is Backrooms about, and who's in it?

A doorway turns up in the basement of a furniture showroom. Behind it: rooms that repeat without end, where time doesn't behave and something seems to be waiting. That's the official setup, and we'll leave the plot there.

Kane Parsons directed, adapting his own YouTube series, from a screenplay by Will Soodik. Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve lead, with Mark Duplass, Finn Bennett and Lukita Maxwell. James Wan and Shawn Levy are among the producers.

How long did Backrooms take to reach streaming?

119 days from the first theatrical weekend to HBO Max. That's long by 2026 standards — Supergirl made the same trip in 76 — and it tracks with a film that kept selling tickets all summer.

Box office sits at roughly $396.5 million worldwide, per Screen Rant, which makes it A24's biggest release ever and more than double the previous record, Marty Supreme, at $192.3 million. The film runs 110 minutes and is rated R for language and some violent, bloody images.

Is there a Backrooms sequel?

Not yet. Nothing has been announced. Screen Rant reports Parsons has talked about extending the story as a TV series rather than a second film, but no studio or service has ordered one. We'd treat anything else you read as speculation until A24 says so.

👉 Friday morning on HBO Max, Saturday at 8 p.m. ET on HBO — and if you rented it in July, you already have it.

What else is out this weekend?

It's a busy Friday. Netflix puts out Unabomber the same morning, Peacock adds The Phoenician Scheme, and Thursday brought all 10 episodes of A Different World plus the three-episode American Horror Story: 13 premiere. Day by day, it's all in this week's streaming schedule. Every title page we keep is listed under release times, and the HBO Max, Hulu and Peacock coverage lives in its own section. If you're weighing whether to keep HBO Max past one film, the weekly-versus-binge chart shows which of its fall shows drop all at once.

Some links on this page may earn us a commission. It doesn't change what we cover.

FAQ

Is Backrooms free on HBO Max? It's included in every HBO Max subscription, including the plan with ads. There's no extra rental fee on HBO Max.

Is Backrooms on Netflix? No. It's an A24 film with an HBO pay-TV deal, so HBO Max is the only subscription home in the U.S.

How long is Backrooms? 110 minutes, rated R.

Can I watch it before Friday? Only by renting or buying it digitally, which has been possible since July 14.

Sources

• BroadwayWorld — HBO Max announcement: streaming and HBO dates, credits, synopsis
• Seat42F — HBO Max Sept. 25 and HBO Sept. 26, 8 p.m. ET
• Screen Rant — box office, runtime, rating, digital date, sequel status
• Time Out — digital rental and purchase prices

By the Streaming On Air desk · Updated 4:45 a.m. ET