As traditional big-budget summer tentpoles have faltered at the box office this summer, indie horror movies are having a moment unlike anything the film industry as seen. One of the biggest and most surprising hits of the year so far is Curry Barker’s Obsession, a $750,000 production starring a largely unknown cast. After making some waves at the Toronto International Film Festival, Obsession arrived in theaters in mid-May without much fanfare. That quickly changed, as the film benefited from tremendous word of mouth, helping fuel an extremely fruitful box office run. Obsession has already made history in more ways than one, becoming Focus Features’ biggest release ever and surpassing The Mandalorian and Grogu. Now, it’s reached another impressive milestone.
Videos by ComicBook.com
According to Deadline, Obsession has now earned $286.5 million at the worldwide box office. That surpasses the total of The Blair Witch Project ($248.6 million), making it the highest-grossing festival acquisition of all time. Obsession has also earned more than Get Out ($259.9 million). Interestingly, Variety has Obsession‘s total at $265 million globally. It’s unknown why there’s a gap between the two outlets, but either figure tops both Blair Witch and Get Out, further cementing Obsession‘s place in box office history.
Obsession‘s Box Office Success is Largely Unprecedented
For years, horror has been one of the most consistent draws at the box office, but even by the genre’s standard, Obsession has been a major outlier. Similar to franchise installments, it’s common for horror movies to be a bit front loaded, meaning they make a massive splash opening weekend as genre fans come out in full force and then die off. One of the reasons why studios are always looking for horror projects is because they’re typically inexpensive to produce. That means they can still be profitable even if they suffer a steep second weekend drop.
Obsession earned $17.1 million domestically in its opening weekend, so it was already in the black after just three days. It could have fallen off after that, overshadowed by big-budget genre movies like The Mandalorian and Grogu and Masters of the Universe, and it would have been in great shape financially. What makes Obsession‘s run incredible is its staying power. Even when movies hold well, it usually isn’t like this. Obsession has earned more than its debut in each subsequent weekend. It was only this past weekend when it saw its first drop. To get an idea of how impressive Obsession has performed at the box office, check out the table below:
| Weekend | Gross (Domestic) | Difference from Last Week |
| 1 | $17.1 million | N/A |
| 2 | $23.9 million | +39.3% |
| 3 | $27.3 million | +14.3% |
| 4 | $25.3 million | -7.3% |
This is a testament to Obsession‘s enthusiastic word of mouth. Buzz for the film has spread exponentially over the past month, helping it break out and appeal to audiences outside of its core demographic (horror fans). Due to its easily digestible elevator pitch and high praise for Inde Navarrette’s star-making performance, Obsession earned “must-see” status. The general consensus is that it’s best experienced with a crowd, which has only motivated people to check it out on the big screen. These days, moviegoers want to feel like a trip to the theater is worthwhile, and Obsession definitely fits that bill.
It will be interesting to see how Obsession fares from here. Because this run has been so unprecedented, it’s hard to predict how things will go. There isn’t really a comparison that makes sense. One would think that after playing for a full month, it would begin to slide down the charts, especially with heavy hitters like Toy Story 5 and Supergirl coming out over the next couple of weeks, but Obsession should not be underestimated. This weekend, it came in second place behind only Disclosure Day. It obviously isn’t going to challenge Toy Story 5 for the top spot next weekend, but it should continue to hang out in the top five.
What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
