How an indie horror film became a box-office ‘Obsession’

Curry Barker, a 26-year-old YouTuber-turned-filmmaker, made his horror film “Obsession” in just 20 days on a mere $750,000 budget

Curry Barker, a 26-year-old YouTuber-turned-filmmaker, made his horror film “Obsession” in just 20 days on a mere $750,000 budget.

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Now, after its second weekend in theaters, the Focus Features-distributed movie is on track to earn more than 100 times that amount, with an expected $79.7 million haul at the global box office, according to Box Office Mojo, which tracks global theatrical totals. Of that projected total, $58.5 million came from North American theaters. (Focus Features is a unit of NBC News’ parent corporation, Comcast.)

It’s a feat that even horror film genre heavyweight Jason Blum, who was an executive producer on the film, said is rare. “Obsession is the ONLY wide-release horror film on record to grow in its second weekend at this scale — $22.4M, up 30% over opening,” Blum wrote Sunday on X. “This doesn’t happen in horror.”