Chilling horror Obsession becomes one of the most profitable films of all time

Obsession has become one of the most profitable films of all time after surpassing $148million (£109.9m) at the box office – and on a budget of just $750k (£557k).

The psychological horror film only released on Friday May 15, but after its third weekend in cinemas it has already made back nearly 200 times its original production budget.

This is a stat most studios can only dream of – but international distributor Universal Pictures has achieved, after indie outfit Tea Shop Productions initially saw the vision, joined by genre power player Blumhouse after Obsession’s September premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.

It’s also notable that Obsession earned more in its third weekend than in its second and more in its second than in its first, rather than facing the usual decline, as audiences grew thanks to its word-of-mouth popularity and excellent reviews.

Obsession has currently earned more than $104.7m (£77.7m) domestically and over $43.2m (£32m) internationally, making up its impressive global total of $148m, while it also holds a 96% rating on Rotten Tomatoes from 242 reviews and fans have rated it a very healthy 94%.

The ‘wildly entertaining’ and ‘wickedly clever’ movie, according to critics, is now being projected to earn as much as $250m (£185.6m) before its theatrical run is over, off the back of its staggering success so far.

With a budget of $750k to $1m (£742.6k), that kind of performance would see it earn around 333 times its budget.

To put this in context, Avatar is the highest grossing film of all time, raking in $2.92billion (£2.17bn) at the box office.

But with a budget of $237m (£176m), the James Cameron flick made just over 12 times its budget back.

Despite its triumph so far though, Obsession still has some way to go before it beats fellow horror movie The Blair Witch Project in terms of profitability.

The found footage movie was famously a sleeper hit, earning $248.6m (£184.6m) from a production budget as small as $200,000 (£148.5k) – meaning a profit 1,243 times as large.

Written, directed and edited by YouTuber Curry Barker in his theatrical debut, Obsession follows hopeless romantic Bear (Michael Johnston), who buys a supernatural toy that – once broken – grants him his wish for friend Nikki (Inde Navarrette, earning universal acclaim) to fall in love with him.

But he soon discovers that asking for someone to love you more than anyone in the world comes at a sinister price.

Actor Mark Duplass has also said he thinks the success of both Obsession and Backrooms offers a ‘glimmer of hope’ for Hollywood.

The Morning Show star, 49, who plays researcher Phil in YouTuber Kane Parsons’ Backrooms, is delighted to see the way the two new horror films from online content creators have been received by fans at the box office despite the overall industry seemingly struggling.

He said in a video on X: ‘I just want to take a moment to celebrate the glimmer of hope that Obsession and Backrooms are bringing to our industry.

‘And I don’t want to overstate it, I know how complicated and dire things can be. But this is cool.

‘We now know we have the democratised access to technology. We’ve been wondering where to put these things because the distribution system is so fractured.

‘But we’ve got an example of creators woodshedding things, putting them online, building an audience, and now the people with the purse strings are going to notice probably a little bit sooner because they see what they can do at the box office in the form of these two films that are over-performing.’

Backrooms, which comes from 20-year-old content creator Kane Parsons, was on track for the biggest opening in A24 history over the weekend; it could gross as much as $90m (£66.8m) off a $10m (£7.4m) budget.

Duplass added: ‘So it helps to double down on what I’ve always believed in, which is we should be woodshedding at home with our friends.

‘We should be using the tools that we have available to us, our iPhones and Blender and swing the sword that’s in your hand, make your stuff and when it’s really good, start putting it out there. And there’s a path.’

Obsession and Backrooms are both in cinemas now.

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