The thriller premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2025 before opening in cinemas in May 2026
Pop Culture & ArtJuly 18, 20261 min readPHOTO: Radio Times
Low-budget horror sensation Obsession is on course to become one of the most profitable films in cinema history, earning more than US$400 million (S$516 million) worldwide despite costing less than US$1 million to produce.
Written, directed and edited by first-time filmmaker Curry Barker, the supernatural thriller premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2025 before opening in cinemas in May 2026. Since then, it has become a word-of-mouth phenomenon, particularly among Gen Z audiences, transforming the 26-year-old YouTube creator into one of Hollywood’s fastest-rising directors.
Industry analyst Bruce Nash, founder of box office tracking website The Numbers, believes Obsession is set to achieve an unprecedented feat.
“In terms of the ratio between the worldwide box office and the production budget, Obsession is going to be the biggest success of all time, which is extraordinary,” Nash said.
With worldwide ticket sales now exceeding US$430 million, the film has already overtaken The Blair Witch Project, which famously grossed around US$250 million against a reported US$600,000 budget in 1999. While blockbusters such as Avatar and Titanic earned far more in absolute dollars, their production costs were hundreds of times larger than Barker’s micro-budget horror film.
The breakout success also reflects a growing trend of digital creators making the leap to feature filmmaking. Barker previously worked a series of low-paying jobs, including at Starbucks and flipping burgers in Los Angeles, while producing short films and YouTube videos before making his first feature.
Another young online creator, Kane Parsons, has enjoyed similar success this year with Backrooms, reinforcing Hollywood’s growing confidence in filmmakers who first built audiences on social media. Together, the two films have highlighted horror as one of the strongest genres for attracting younger cinema-goers.
Christopher Nolan praised the emergence of filmmakers like Barker during recent interviews promoting The Odyssey, describing the new wave of creators as “very encouraging for the future of cinema.”
Despite the film’s remarkable financial performance, there are currently no plans for a sequel. Star Michael Johnston recently said Barker is more interested in exploring new stories than immediately continuing Obsession, though he acknowledged “anything can happen” in the future.
The success of Obsession, alongside major releases such as The Odyssey, has helped fuel one of the strongest years for cinemas since before the pandemic, with 2026 on pace to become the biggest global box office year in several years.
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