Curry Barker was 26 years old and still best known for YouTube sketch comedy when he shot Obsession in 20 days on $750,000. Six months later, the supernatural horror film has earned $224.7 million worldwide — making it Focus Features’ highest-grossing release in the company’s history — and its director has become one of the most sought-after filmmakers in Hollywood.
In a cover story interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Barker turned his film’s success into a direct challenge to studio thinking. “I wish they understood that we’re tired of slop,” he said. “We want good movies back. People are still hungry for movies that are original without some big IP, as long as the story is good.” The statement carries weight precisely because of who is saying it: a Gen Z filmmaker whose debut feature has now outperformed decades of Focus acquisitions, including Downton Abbey’s $194.6 million global run.
The film follows Bear, a lonely music store employee who uses a supernatural toy to make his childhood friend fall in love with him, with catastrophic consequences — a premise Barker has said clicked after watching a Simpsons take on the Monkey’s Paw. Starring Michael Johnston and Inde Navarrette, it premiered in the Midnight section at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2025, triggering a bidding war that ended with Focus Features acquiring it for $15 million — reported as the highest acquisition price for a genre film in TIFF’s history. Blumhouse came aboard after the deal closed.
The theatrical run defied conventional box office physics. Rather than the standard steep drop-off after opening weekend, Obsession earned 30 percent more in its second weekend than its first. Its fourth weekend — $25.6 million domestically, down just seven percent — set the record for the biggest fourth weekend a horror film has ever posted, surpassing The Blair Witch Project.
Barker built his audience outside the studio system entirely, starting with a sketch comedy YouTube channel called That’s a Bad Idea, then an $800 found-footage feature called Milk & Serial, then a horror short called The Chair that attracted producer interest. He signed with UTA in March 2025, months before TIFF made him a household name. His follow-up, the horror-comedy Anything But Ghosts, is already filmed and set for release through Focus and Blumhouse.
