Obsession continues to make box office history with $300M haul
Overview & Key Takeaways
Curry Barker's low-budget horror film Obsession has made over 400 times its production budget and counting. Here's what's next for Barker.
One of this year’s biggest unexpected hits continues its dominant theatrical performance. Obsession is about to cross the $300 million mark worldwide, delivering more than a 400 times return on its tiny $750,000 production budget. Reports on the death of cinema seem to have been greatly exaggerated.
This year has marked a turning point for the box office with Gen Z-driven horror movies setting records as existing franchises struggle. Obsession was written and directed by the 26-year-old Curry Barker, a creator who got his start on YouTube before making his feature-length directorial debut with Milk & Serial in 2024.
His film Obsession debuted at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival, where Focus Features scooped it up for around $14 million. Its theatrical run in the U.S. began on May 15 and became a viral sensation among younger viewers, holding the No. 2 spot at the domestic box office for a month straight as it became Focus’ highest-grossing film ever. It’s currently the fifth-highest-grossing film of 2026 domestically, behind blockbuster films that cost dramatically more to make.
When paired with Backrooms, another Gen Z-helmed horror film that’s made over $250 million at the box office off a small budget, it’s become clear that younger viewers are willing to go to the theater provided they’re given something original that targets their generation. Meanwhile, the latest installments in decades-old franchises, like Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu and Masters of the Universe, have struggled to make the same kind of impact in theaters.
We'll be seeing quite a bit more of Curry Barker in the immediate future, as he has multiple projects in the pipeline. In April, A24 announced he’d be writing and directing a reboot of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Universal Pictures announced this week that Barker will write, direct, and produce an original horror film through Blumhouse-Atomic Monster, Spooky Pictures, and Divide/Conquer.
If that wasn’t enough, Barker’s next movie, Anything But Ghosts, starring Aaron Paul, Bryce Dallas Howard, and Violet McGraw, is already in post-production. It follows two fake paranormal investigators who end up in over their heads when confronted by actual ghosts. The film will also be distributed by Focus, and Barker has said the movie is set in the same universe as Obsession. While Hollywood and the film industry writ large are still facing a tough path forward, Barker’s film has helped prove things aren’t all doom and gloom.
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