YouTube Stars Sam and Colby Talk ‘Legends of the Paranormal’ Cinemark Release Expansion (EXCLUSIVE)

Katcy Stephan

3 October 2024 at 3:26 pm·3-min read

Paranormal investigators Sam Golbach and Colby Brock have already conjured YouTube success, scaring up more than 13 million subscribers on their popular channel. Now, the spirited duo is chasing another elusive goal: becoming movie stars.

Golbach and Brock (“Sam and Colby” to their fans) made their first foray into the theatrical space a year ago, when they releasing an episode of their series “A Week at the Conjuring House” in October 2023, two days before its YouTube premiere. That sneak was shown in 168 Cinemark theaters across the U.S.

More from Variety

“Over the last four or five years, we’ve created feature-length videos for YouTube,” Golbach tells Variety. “We approached Cinemark last year to see if we could put one of our YouTube videos into theaters to basically have a test project, like a proof of concept.”

After an immediate sell-out, they charted a course for their next project — and thought even bigger. The duo’s new 97-minute film, “Sam and Colby: The Legends of the Paranormal,” is heading exclusively to theaters, but this time on a much larger scale.

“We went to Mount Wilson Ranch in Nevada, and we were in search of something completely different: cryptids, skinwalkers and aliens and ghosts as well,” Brock says of the film. “We’ve never stepped into that mythical realm or world with our fan base, and so it’s gonna bring like, a whole new light to Sam and Colby and the adventure that we went on.”

While “The Legends of the Paranormal” was originally scheduled for a three-day limited window across 260 Cinemark screens, overwhelming fan demand prompted the movie chain to expand its release plans to 350 screens for a full-week schedule, beginning Oct. 3. “After the first weekend of sales, they called us!” Brock says. “We’re so grateful.”

If sales continue to impress, Golbach says Cinemark has shown interest in screening the film for the entire month of October.

While Hollywood hasn’t always taken YouTubers seriously in the film space, the duo say their built-in audience and ability to bridge the gap between film and online content puts them on the precipice of a major breakthrough for influencers. “This is the new form of entertainment, especially for younger audiences like Gen Z,” Brock asserts.

Adds Golbach: “Everyone is set in their ways in traditional media, so they are just waiting to see what it’s like for the YouTubers when we come through and do things like this theatrical release. I don’t think it’s going to be until people like Colby and I do these releases over and over and over again, and have the same selling power that the traditional media has, that they will finally believe that YouTube’s the real thing.”

While they got to celebrate their “Legends of the Paranormal” success with a splashy premiere at the TCL Chinese Theatre, Golbach and Brock are already looking ahead for how they can up the ante next. “This is hopefully the very, very beginning of the journey,” Golbach says. “We have already have talks of the 2025 movie.”

Brock hopes that, with time and elbow grease, films like theirs can become the new normal. “Give it five or ten years, and then everybody will understand.”

Best of Variety