Obsession just dethroned The Exorcist at the box office

If you told me back in January that a scrappy, tiny-budget supernatural movie would outdo a horror legend at the box office, I'd probably have raised an eyebrow. But here we are: Obsession has just dethroned The Exorcist, a record that looked utterly unbreakable since the early seventies.

Obsession has reached $443.3 million in global box office, overtaking The Exorcist's $430.8 million.

The Numbers Game

Let's start with the basics. Obsession — Curry Barker's supernatural heartbreaker about a desperate romantic and a not-so-innocent magical stick called the One Wish Willow — is now sitting at $443.3 million in worldwide takings. That's up against the $430.8 million The Exorcist managed (never mind inflation; these are the bare, unadjusted totals, which is what studios love to use in press releases).

If you're not already impressed, Obsession managed all this while streaming on Peacock and premium VOD at the same time as its cinema run — so these aren't even "everyone-must-go-to-the-pictures" conditions. That's a proper feat.

From $750K to Box Office Juggernaut

Here's the kicker: Focus Features paid $14 million for Obsession after it made a splash at festivals. The original production budget? $750,000. Next thing you know, it's May, the film's out in cinemas, and suddenly it's 2026's big genre surprise.

The cast — Michael Johnston, Inde Navarrette, Cooper Tomlinson, Megan Lawless, Andy Richter — deliver Barker's wicked tale that starts with an innocent crush and spirals into disaster, all thanks to that magic stick.

YouTube Roots and a Ripple Effect

Barker didn't just drop out of nowhere. He built an audience on YouTube — very much following the path of Kane Parsons, who also turned online work into a 2026 box office win (Backrooms). Suddenly, there's a mini-movement of YouTubers crashing the party in Hollywood.

The big dogs are definitely paying attention — Christopher Nolan has reportedly described Obsession as "working like a motherf**ker", and claims it's making him rethink his horror aversion. No pressure, then.

The film's gone viral beyond cinema too. People are falling over themselves arguing about consent, meme culture, and whether the next blockbuster director is probably right now tinkering in their bedroom with a ring light.

The Legacy Torch

Don't worry: The Exorcist isn't exactly in the bin. William Friedkin's classic still holds the honour of being the first horror flick to get a Best Picture nod, and its shadow stretches across the whole genre. But in purely financial terms, the crown's changed hands. Obsession — box office champion, and probably not the last surprise we'll get from the online generation.

Currently, Obsession is still on the big screen, and if you can't be bothered with the cinema, it's out on premium VOD too.