Obsession: What's Next After Its Historic Box Office Achievement?

Ecran Large / Films / Actualités

Obsession is defying all the rules of the American box office and might just go further if we believe the director.

Less than a million dollars. That's the microscopically small budget allocated to Obsession, the second film from young director Curry Barker after a found footage film released directly on YouTube (according to The Wrap). Shot with exemplary economical means, it has nonetheless made a big impression at the Toronto International Film Festival, prompting a real bidding war. That's Focus Features that won it, with a bid of $15 million.

Obsession: a movie that's gaining a following, whether you like it or not (of blood)

This is what we call well-spent money. Because Obsession has become a phenomenon, instantly taking its director to the pinnacle of the Hollywood industry. And it's far from over.

A single post won't be enough to list the records set by Obsession. After a first weekend in the United States earning $17.1 million, more than twice the estimated amount, it gained popularity two consecutive weeks. Unprecedented since Almost Famous with Sydney Sweeney. Before that, we have to go back to 1996 and Scream to find a similar achievement, according to critic Dan Murell! So much so that it was a real financial explosion: nearly 40% of additional revenue during the second weekend!

Starting June, it finally slowed down, but gradually. In the United States, it's been three weeks since it's been playing in theaters, slowly chipping away at the competition. The anecdotes about its success demonstrate how much it goes against the box office rules. As The Wrap noted, its 25th day at the box office earned more than Avengers: Endgame, the second highest grossing film of all time, at the same period.

During its fifth week, it returned to second place on the rankings, ahead of Scary Movie, its rival The Backrooms, and a Star Wars that it has already defeated at home and still has a chance to humiliate internationally. It has added 19 million additional dollars to a total of 286.4 million dollars. It has thus surpassed the score of The Blair Witch Project, the first of these horror phenomena and pioneering found footage.

The director, Curry Barker, is undoubtedly in high demand. He is finalizing Anything But Ghost, which should not be long in coming, and has already signed the reboot of A Nightmare on Elm Street, which the prestigious studio A24 has acquired rights to. Despite all this, he has taken the time to discuss with The Hollywood Reporter about this artistic hold-up. According to the article, he was congratulated by Peter Kujawski, the president of Focus Features, for signing the biggest hit in the studio's history. Kujawski does not count Fifty Shades of Grey, which he officially co-produced but not distributed.

The young director confirms that he is a new Hollywood star: a studio even offered him $10 million for any project without even pitching it to him. According to sources from the medium, Blumhouse-Atomic Monsters would, however, have contractually had precedence over his next original feature film, and it would be hard not to use this privilege. Finally, The Hollywood Reporter did not miss the opportunity to ask him if a campaign was planned for the Oscars.

'There will be a campaign for the Oscar. I don't really know what that means. I try not to imagine things and stay focused on what I do next.'

Making a campaign for the Oscars is generally a big investment for distributors, even if some, like Neon, have made it a specialty. Placing Obsession in the running could cost several times its budget. Of course, the horror genre is rarely represented at the Oscars and Golden Globes. The Substance had been nominated for Best Film in 2025, just like Get Out in 2018 and Black Swan in 2011, but this is almost all in this category since 2000. The financial and critical success of Obsession could, however, allow it to redefine a new rule in the Hollywood industry. To be continued.

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