Curry Barker’s ‘$750K Horror Film’ ‘Obsession’ Topples ‘It Chapter Two’ to Make Domestic Box Office History
When Curry Barker first started uploading short horror films to YouTube, no one could have predicted that his path would lead to rewriting the record books for the entire horror genre. The 26-year-old sketch comedian wrote, directed, and edited ‘Obsession’ entirely himself, shooting the film in Los Angeles in October 2024 for $750,000. It is the kind of origin story the industry invents for its legends, except this one is still happening in real time.
The film follows Bear, a music store employee who buys a supernatural toy that grants his wish for his friend Nikki to fall in love with him, resulting in a cascade of horrifying consequences neither of them can outrun. After its festival debut, Focus Features beat out rivals including A24 and Neon in a bidding war for the project, ultimately acquiring it for $15 million. Measured against what the film actually cost to produce, that deal already looked bold. It has since looked like one of the savviest acquisitions in recent Hollywood memory.
The milestones have been arriving faster than the industry can process them. According to @Luiz_Fernando_J on X, ‘Obsession’ has now crossed $215.8 million at the domestic box office, overtaking ‘It Chapter Two’s total US run of $211.6 million to claim the title of the seventh-highest-grossing horror film in American theatrical history. That record fell during the film’s sixth weekend in cinemas, and that weekend broke its own ground entirely.
That sixth frame brought in $14.2 million domestically, marking the largest sixth weekend any horror film has ever posted in the United States, with a drop of just 25.3 percent despite the arrival of ‘Toy Story 5’ and the film playing in 3,053 locations. Word of mouth and organic audience enthusiasm have been the defining engines of the film’s run, the kind of buzz that simply cannot be manufactured or bought through a marketing campaign. Repeat viewership and genuine passion have carried ‘Obsession’ well past any ceiling the industry thought to put on it.
The feature was made for $750,000, completely bankrolled by Christian Mercuri’s Capstone, with Blumhouse coming aboard after Focus closed its acquisition deal. It has since become Focus Features’ biggest movie of all time domestically, surpassing prestige titles the label spent years cultivating, including Robert Eggers’ ‘Nosferatu’ and the beloved ‘Downton Abbey’ continuation. A domestic finish somewhere between $250 million and $270 million is now being openly discussed, a figure that would have sounded absurd only weeks ago.
Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film an A-minus grade, while the critical consensus praised ‘Obsession’ as dauntingly disturbing yet skillfully amusing and thrilling. Critics drew comparisons to Zach Cregger’s ‘Barbarian’, pointing to the film’s sharp combination of sadistic tension, darkly comedic needle drops, and horror rooted in pathetically recognizable human behaviour.
Speaking to NBC News, Barker was candid about how unexpected the entire journey has been, saying that when they made ‘Obsession,’ they had no idea what was going to happen, though he always felt it was his job to believe in the film and champion it. He now has follow-up film ‘Anything But Ghosts’ in the works and has been tapped by A24 to helm a reimagining of ‘The Texas Chain Saw Massacre’.
A film produced on a sub-million-dollar budget, from a creator who earned his entire following through YouTube uploads, has now cracked a domestic all-time horror list that includes titles carrying massive studio backing, beloved source material, and decades of brand recognition, none of which Barker had at his disposal. With the run still very much alive and projections pointing higher by the week, it is worth asking which classic horror titles you think ‘Obsession’ still has a realistic shot at passing before its theatrical run is finally done.
