Obsession Is On Track To Become One Of The Most Profitable Films Of All Time

Made on a shoestring and packed with nerve-jangling tension, indie horror Obsession is schooling the studio behemoths, leaving Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu looking bloated by comparison.

A Low-Budget Shocker That’s Breaking All the Rules

'Obsession', a scrappy horror flick directed by Curry Barker (yes, from YouTube, if you can believe it), landed in cinemas on Friday, 15 May. Unlike the usual curve, instead of dwindling as the weeks tick on, 'Obsession' somehow gained steam: it made more money in its third weekend than its second, and its second beat its first. That almost never happens, unless your film’s got Marvel or Star Wars written on it somewhere. Right now, it's sitting pretty at $104 million earned domestically, $148 million worldwide, and if certain analysts are to be believed, it could sail north of $250 million before it wraps its run.

Now, here’s where things just get silly. 'Obsession' was cobbled together for somewhere between $750,000 and $1 million. Let's split the difference at the low end: that’s an ROI of 333 times its budget. Put that up next to 'Avatar'—the biggest box office hit in history, $2.92 billion gross versus its $237 million spend, a 12.33x return—and 'Obsession', while not in the same galaxy profit-wise, leaves Cameron’s blue people eating dust on pure percentage gains.

Indie Horror’s Gold Rush: How Does 'Obsession' Measure Up?

Even with its monster leap in earnings, 'Obsession' isn't the ultimate indie success story, at least by the numbers. Let’s put this in some perspective:

• 'The Blair Witch Project' (1999): Cost about $200,000, grossed $248.6 million, a 1,243x multiplier.
• 'Paranormal Activity' (2007): Started off at an eye-watering $15k budget, got a bump to $215,000 with later spend, and took in $193.35 million—that’s an 899x return at the higher budget figure.
• 'Obsession' (2024): $750k budget, $148 million so far, staring down a possible $250m finish, about 333x return.

'Obsession' is smashing it, but some earlier indie horrors set nearly uncatchable records on pure return-on-investment. Still, considering the landscape, being in even the distant company of 'Blair Witch' and 'Paranormal Activity' is a bit special.

It’s Not Just One Young YouTuber, Either

If you're thinking Curry Barker is a total anomaly, think again. There's 'Backrooms', another horror indie (this one courtesy of Kane Parsons, also out of the YouTube wilds) which just opened and has already snagged $81 million in the US ($118 million worldwide) with a comparatively 'generous' $10 million budget. Not quite as extreme as 'Obsession', but it's another case of a digital upstart filching box office glory from under the noses of the majors.

Big Budgets Fumble While Indies Clean Up

While the indie upstarts count their winnings, the sighs from the usual heavyweights have been pretty loud. Disney’s 'The Mandalorian and Grogu' movie—budgeted at a chunky $165 million—currently sits at $246 million worldwide. Normally, a figure like that would have Disney popping the bubbly, but here's the catch: films like this usually need to make at least double, if not more, just to break even once the marketing beast has been fed. To make matters worse, its box office slipped a massive 70% by the second weekend (that's according to Variety), so you wouldn't bank on it breaking even anytime soon.

Are We Genuinely at a Tipping Point?

With numbers like these, you do wonder whether Hollywood finally might start putting money where the actual excitement is—original films, smaller budgets, and directors who've not spent the last decade trapped in franchise land. We've seen how mid-budget prestige horror does solid business: take 'Weapons', made for $38 million last year and packing in $270 million in global receipts. It doesn't take an MBA to see the trend here.