In recent days, Obsession has made box office history in several ways, the most significant of which was perhaps becoming the highest-grossing Focus Features film of all time…but the horror film directed by first-time director Curry Barker still has new records to break.
“Obsession” has not only become the highest-grossing film in Focus Features history, but it has also surpassed a 22-year-old box office record held by none other than Michael Moore: the provocative documentary filmmaker’s most acclaimed and well-known film, “Fahrenheit 9/11”—an investigation into the Iraq War and the media’s failure to challenge the Bush administration’s claims that Saddam Hussein possessed “weapons of mass destruction”—held for decades the record for the highest-grossing film ever acquired at a film festival.
After winning the Palme d’Or at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival and being acquired by Lionsgate, the film grossed $222 million, an all-time record for a documentary at the time. Now, however, “Obsession” has surpassed the box office earnings of “Fahrenheit 9/11” (adjusted for inflation) after nearly four weeks in theaters, reaching a total of $224 million.
Premiered in the midnight section of last year’s Toronto International Film Festival, “Obsession” became one of the event’s most talked-about films and was acquired by Focus for $15 million. In the United States, “Obsession” has surpassed $150 million at the box office and is on track to join “The Exorcist,” “Sinners,” and the “It” duology as the fifth horror film to gross $200 million in the U.S. This follows an opening weekend of $17.1 million, after which, however, the film’s popularity skyrocketed: since then, it has posted surprisingly high weekday grosses and even higher totals on subsequent weekends—an extremely rare occurrence in modern cinema.
Just last weekend, for example, “Obsession” saw a decline compared to the previous weekend, but only by -7%, grossing $25.6 million in its fourth weekend. This despite competition from films such as the other independent horror hit “Backrooms” and the Paramount/Miramax horror parody “Scary Movie,” which grossed $55 million last weekend.
At this point, it’s hard to predict just how far “Obsession” will go, given that it has yet to be released in some foreign markets, such as Spain and Germany. The film needs about $125 million more worldwide to enter the top 10 highest-grossing horror films of all time: if it succeeds, it would surpass hits like “A Quiet Place” and “The Conjuring 2,” and by exceeding $400 million worldwide, it would become only the eighth horror film to reach that milestone.
All of this, of course, on a budget of $750,000, so it would also be the lowest-budget film ever to achieve this feat.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
