Eight weekends after its release, Focus Features\u2019 \u201cObsession\u201d has one more achievement to add to its list of historic box office records. As Curry Barker\u2019s acclaimed, potentially Oscar-contending horror film crosses $400 million worldwide, it now stands as the highest grossing film before inflation adjustment with a maximum production budget of $1 million. <\/p>\n
There\u2019s only one film in movie history with a budget below that mark and a $400 million global cume before inflation adjustment, and it is the most famous martial arts film of all time: Bruce Lee\u2019s \u201cEnter the Dragon,\u201d which was produced for $850,000 in 1973 and grossed $400 million worldwide, or roughly $2 billion in today\u2019s money, following the Hong Kong star\u2019s untimely death from brain edema shortly before the film\u2019s release. <\/p>\n
Among the other notable low-budget films in the sub-million category include the Oscar-winning \u201cRocky,\u201d made for $1 million in 1976 and grossing $225 million worldwide, the 2007 horror classic \u201cParanormal Activity,\u201d which made $194 million against a $450,000 budget and established Blumhouse as a titan in the genre, and the 1999 Sundance hit \u201cThe Blair Witch Project,\u201d which once held the record for the highest grossing film acquired from a festival with $248.6 million grossed against a $750,000 budget. <\/p>\n
While \u201cObsession\u201d was produced and released in a vastly different economic and cinematic landscape than any of these films, they share a common thread of films with significantly lower budgets and resources than the major studio productions of their time leaving an indelible mark on pop culture. <\/p>\n
Produced on a reported $750,000, \u201cObsession\u201d is a film that, on paper, sounds like a film that the movie world has seen before: a monkey paw horror story about a selfish wish gone horribly wrong that gained wild initial buzz from a festival premiere. <\/p>\n
But thanks to Barker\u2019s chilling direction and a disturbing performance from lead star Inde Navarrette, \u201cObsession\u201d has turned a $17 million opening weekend into the sort of long-running audience buzz that has delivered box office numbers that haven\u2019t been seen in the film industry in decades. <\/p>\n
The next four weekends delivered totals higher than opening weekend, and \u201cObsession\u201d soon joined Ryan Coogler\u2019s \u201cSinners\u201d as only the second original film since the start of 2018 to gross more than $200 million in the U.S. and Canada. <\/p>\n
The movie has also joined forces with A24\u2019s horror hit \u201cBackrooms\u201d to become a banner moment for Gen Z filmmakers and audiences, who have become the driving force for both titles as Hollywood has taken note of a new generation that has built its interests and filmmaking experience through YouTube and other online platforms. In the latest development of this new trend, Warner Bros. has announced a horror film based on the creepypasta \u201cSiren Head,\u201d with Brian Duffield directing and \u201cWeapons\u201d filmmaker Zach Cregger co-writing. <\/p>\n
Currently standing as the seventh highest grossing film of the year at the halfway point of 2026, \u201cObsession\u201d has outgrossed movies like the Pixar original animated film \u201cHoppers,\u201d the \u201cStar Wars\u201d movie \u201cThe Mandalorian and Grogu,\u201d the Paramount horror sequel \u201cScream 7,\u201d and the Steven Spielberg sci-fi movie \u201cDisclosure Day.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eight weekends after its release, Focus Features\u2019 \u201cObsession\u201d has one more achievement to add to its list of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":697257,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[2642,88,206,85043],"class_list":["post-747256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-box-office","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-obsession"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=747256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747256\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/697257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=747256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=747256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=747256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}