Hollywood is searching for new story ideas in one unexpected place on the internet

These days it seems more sequels and prequels are being made - but where is Hollywood finding new ideas to adapt to the big screen?

The answer - they're searching through 100,000 subreddit communities ranging from your standard topics like film and sport, to the super specific, on the social media platform Reddit where there were over 240 billion views in the past year.

“It started back in 2019, and it was where people were coming together to really take this simple concept into all these discussions and the lore-building that happened in there,” Jim Squires, chief marketing officer of Reddit, explained to The Hollywood Reporter.

A recent example of where a film got inspired by a subreddit started on r/backrooms, sparked by a 2019 image board 4Chan that went on to become creepypasta, with backrooms being described as large extra dimensional complex of empty rooms, accessed by exiting reality.

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It was Kane Parsons who then took this idea for development with the creations of the Backrooms YouTube series. He would go on to direct an A24 feature film of the same name that was released in cinemas last month and grossed over $216 million worldwide at the box office.

“It’s almost a real-time IP incubator of sorts, with moderators and communities that are cultivating these spaces where stories and fandoms can grow organically,” says Squires.

People are channelling their creativity on the Reddit platform to post stories with some reading and writing horror.

Another instance of a Reddit story getting the Hollywood treatment is a feature film that is being produced by and starring Sydney Sweeney called I Pretended to Be a Missing Girl where a drifter impersonates a missing girl in order to rob her family, only to realise she's made a terrible mistake.

Photo by Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for Stagecoach

“Ultimately, if [a studio or producer has] an idea and they want to develop it, like the Sydney Sweeney idea, that’s for them to ultimately reach out to the moderators and the right people on the platform to do that, and they do those deals directly, but we will help facilitate when needed," Squires said.

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