How Much Did Obsession Make Curry Barkers Horror Film Nears 300m Beats The Blair Witch Project

Movie buffs can’t get enough of Nikki and Bear’s scary relationship as Focus Features/Blumhouse’s Obsession now counts a running global cume of $286.5M. Deadline reported. This makes Curry Barker’s film the highest grossing movie to ever be picked up at a film festival, beating The Blair Witch Project's reported final global of $248.6M. The found footage horror film was acquired out of Sundance 1999 for $1M+ by Artisan.

Curry Barker’s Obsession, produced on a micro-budget of under $1 million (estimated $750,000), has become a historic box-office phenomenon. The film defied horror movie trends, posted consecutive weekend revenue increases and went on to become the highest-grossing film acquisition in history.

Starring Indie Navarrette and Michael Johnston, Obsession saw its fourth consecutive weekend (out of five) best its opening frame ($17.1M). It even bested the global cume of Blumhouse and Universal’s Oscar winning Get Out which finale at $259.9M

Jason Blum's Blumhouse Atomic is making $17 million in box office bonuses on Obsession as an executive producer who helped market the film, three people with knowledge of the situation told TheWrap. The film was independently produced for just $750,000 by Under the Shell, Tea Shop Productions and Capstone Pictures. The film premiered in the midnight section of last year's Toronto International Film Festival, and was acquired by Focus Features for $15 million.

Blum became part of the film as an executive producer a month and a half after the acquisition of the film to help with the marketing. It negotiated a box office bonus structure of $2 million after the film hit $25 million domestic at the box office, a source said, per TheWrap. Blumhouse Atomic gets additional box office bonuses of $500,000 for every $5 million after that.

Blum's company has earned in the ballpark of $17 million, what with the bonuses. This more than Barker or producer Haley Nicole Johnson, according to sources.

A person close to the film said that Capstone will make $45 million to $50 million on the film, which will then be shared with the creative team, including Barker. The same source said that Focus stands to make $125 million on Obsession.

Sumanti Sen covers everything that’s happening in the US, from politics to entertainment, but her expertise lies in covering crime news. She has comprehensively chronicled the Idaho student murders, the Laken Riley and Iryna Zarutska cases, and the killing of Charlie Kirk, among other incidents. Over the years, she has interviewed several victims/families of victims of crimes seeking justice. She digs up stories that might otherwise remain unheard, and does her bit to ensure that victims and survivors’ voices are heard. Sumanti’s many years of experience also include interviews with Hamas attack survivors and mental health experts, among others. Her coverage of the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel and interviews with survivors of the tragedy, coupled with her other works including the Titan submersible coverage, earned her the Digi Journo of the Quarter award during her first year at Hindustan Times. Sumanti actively tracks missing person cases in the United States, and peruses Reddit and other social media platforms to bring to light cases that frequently elude public attention. She has extensively covered the disappearances of Nancy Guthrie, Thomas Medlin, Beau Mann, and Sudiksha Konanki, among others. When not at work, you will either find her with her novels, or with her beloved rescue pooches.Read More