Obsession director finally breaks silence on art director's viral pay criticism

If you thought the pay rows in Hollywood were going to settle down any time soon, think again. This week, there’s yet more drama over crew wages, all centred on the hit horror film Obsession—the one that’s still doing silly numbers at the box office. It’s not a story of entitled actors or execs squabbling over bonuses, mind you. This time it’s about an art director, a viral Instagram post, and a director who’s finally said his piece.

Who said what, and why is everyone talking?

The whole debate kicked off when Sally Choi, the art director for Obsession, took to Instagram to talk about what she was actually paid for her work. You don’t usually see crew going public with their rates, but in Sally’s case she spelled it out for the world:

• '$300/day as Art Director. This came out to $6741.36 after taxes. No mileage.'

As you’d expect, this raised a few eyebrows, especially given the film’s blockbuster run. People started asking questions—how does someone contribute to a near-$300 million worldwide hit, yet walk away with that figure for weeks of effort? Discussion grew quickly online, with plenty of folks pointing fingers at the filmmakers, and some calling for a wider rethink of pay standards on so-called ‘low budget’ sets.

Curry Barker weighs in

With criticism gaining momentum, Obsession director Curry Barker has now waded into the mess. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Barker tried to put things in context. For starters, he was quick to heap praise on Sally and the rest of the art department:

'I have nothing but respect for the art department, and the work they did was extraordinary. Everybody on this film worked so hard and they deserve to be recognized.'

But after all the nice words, he did get down to brass tacks about the cash (or lack of).
Barker pointed out that Obsession was shot for $750,000—a shoestring by Hollywood standards. In his words, the brutal maths of low-budget filmmaking usually mean that 'the only people who [directly] benefit from its financial success are the people who took on some sort of risk.'

In other words, unless you're an investor or rolled your fee for a slice of the profits, don’t expect a windfall. And despite making a point of how tough these projects are to pull off, Barker did admit he's now hoping the film’s huge success will help people like Choi land bigger, better (and better-paid) jobs in the future: 'What I hope is that every person that worked really hard on this film will see opportunities to catapult their careers in ways that can be very financially fruitful for them — like what’s happening for me.'

Still more questions than answers

All this is playing out as Obsession continues to absolutely clean up at the box office. On a budget under $1 million, it’s already raked in close to $290 million worldwide and is still going strong in cinemas.

So, is this just how things work on microbudget hits? Is it fair? The conversation, if anything, looks like it’s only just begun.