Obsession is currently defying every rule in the American box office, and the filmmaker suggests it could go even further.
Less than a million dollars. That’s the microscopically small budget allocated to Obsession, the sophomore feature from young director Curry Barker after a found footage clip released directly on YouTube (per The Wrap). Filmed with an exemplary economy, it nonetheless made a huge impression at the Toronto International Film Festival, triggering a genuine bidding war. Focus Features won it, with a $15 million bid.
That’s what you call money well spent. Because Obsession has become a bona fide phenomenon, instantly lifting its director to the pinnacle of Hollywood. And it’s far from over.
Obsession for Success
There isn’t just one article to catalog all the records Obsession has broken. After a first U.S. weekend of $17.1 million, well above expectations, it grew in popularity for two straight weeks. It’s a feat not seen since Anything But You with Sydney Sweeney. Prior to that, you’d have to go back to 1996’s Scream to find a run like this, according to critic Dan Murrell. And it wasn’t just momentum—this was a genuine box-office eruption: roughly 40% more revenue in the second weekend!
From June onward, it finally started to cool, albeit only gradually. In the United States, it’s been three weeks in theaters, slowly nibbling away at the competition. Anecdotes about its success illustrate just how counter to conventional box-office rules it is: as The Wrap noted, its 25th day in release earned more than Avengers: Endgame, the second-biggest box-office juggernaut of all time, at the same stage of its run.
In its fifth weekend, it climbed back to second place, ahead of Scary Movie, its stiff competition The Backrooms, and a misfiring Star Wars iteration that it has already bested on home soil and could still outpace abroad. It tacked on another $19 million, lifting its total to a staggering $286.4 million. It has now surpassed The Blair Witch Project, the original horror phenomenon and pioneer of found footage.
From Horror to the Oscars?
Naturally, Curry Barker is now in very high demand. He’s closing in on Anything But Ghost, which should be arriving soon, and he has already signed on to reboot The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, rights acquired by the prestigious studio A24. Yet he also took time to talk with The Hollywood Reporter about this real artistic heist. The piece notes that he was praised by Peter Kujawski, president of Focus Features, for landing the studio’s biggest box office hit ever. Kujawski, it seems, isn’t counting Fifty Shades of Grey, which he officially co-produced but did not distribute.
The young filmmaker confirms he’s a new Hollywood heavyweight: a studio reportedly offered him $10 million for any project without needing a pitch first. Sources close to the outlet say Blumhouse–Atomic Monsters would, contractually, hold priority on his next original feature, and it’s hard to imagine them passing on that prerogative. Finally, The Hollywood Reporter asked whether an Oscar campaign was in the plans.
“There will be a campaign for the awards. I don’t really know what that entails. I try not to imagine things and stay focused on what I do next.”
Campaigning for the Oscars is typically a major investment for distributors, even if some, like Neon, have made it a specialty. Putting Obsession in the running will likely cost several times its budget. Yes, horror rarely finds a place in the Oscar and Golden Globes conversations. The Substance was nominated for Best Picture in 2025, as were Get Out in 2018 and Black Swan in 2011, but that’s about it in this category since 2000. Yet Obsession’s combination of cinema’s commercial and critical appeal could redefine a new rule for Hollywood. Stay tuned.
