While Backrooms has become A24’s most successful film, surpassing the previous record set just a few months ago by Marty Supreme, the other horror hit of the moment, Curry Barker’s Obsession, has also set another major milestone at the global box office. Focus Features’ “Obsession” is officially the highest-grossing film ever for the Universal production company, with the romantic horror directed by Curry Barker surpassing $224.7 million worldwide. The film had already become Focus’s highest-grossing film at the U.S. box office on May 31.
“Obsession” surpasses Focus’s previous global box office record-holder, 2019’s “Downton Abbey” ($194.6 million worldwide), as well as all other Focus films marked with an asterisk: “London Has Fallen” ($202 million worldwide, but Focus distributed it only in the U.S., as Lionsgate handled international sales) and USA Films’ Oscar-winning “Traffic” ($207.5 million worldwide—though in the Focus catalog it is a title from a previous management and a previous Universal Classic label, so it is not counted).
The Blumhouse horror film “Obsession” was launched just like any other genre film: screenings at cult festivals like SXSW, with clever marketing gimmicks like the love notes written on Post-its by the film’s girlfriend, Nikki (Inde Navarrette). Couples of all ages, from Gen Alpha to those in their fifties, have gone and are going to see it.
The directorial debut feature film by YouTuber-turned-filmmaker Curry Barker was made on a budget of $750,000 and was acquired by Focus Features at TIFF Midnight for $15 million. With an incredible $25.6 million in box office receipts during its fourth weekend in the U.S., down just 7%, “Obsession” marks the best fourth weekend ever for a horror film, surpassing 1999’s “The Blair Witch Project,” which grossed $24.3 million. In its fourth weekend overseas, the film grossed $17.7 million (of which $13.8 million came from Universal territories), bringing the total to $43.8 million, distributed across 6,825 theaters and 57 territories. Specifically, domestic box office stands at $152.1 million and international box office at $72.6 million (of which $56.5 million comes from Universal markets).
Incidentally, “Obsession” isn’t the only film breaking new records these days: as mentioned at the beginning, A24’s “Backrooms” has become the highest-grossing film worldwide for the well-known independent production company, while Lionsgate’s “Michael” (with international distribution handled by Universal) has become the studio’s highest-grossing title ever, with $888 million; Furthermore, Super Mario Galaxy has surpassed $1 billion at the box office, also for Universal, becoming the first film of 2026 (and the second in the Super Mario franchise) to reach this significant milestone.
Source: BOM
