The Mandalorian and Grogu technically topped the box office charts this past weekend. But if we’re completely honest, the real crown belongs to Obsession, director Curry Barker’s $1 million Blumhouse horror film. Not only is it breaking records, but the conversation around it, especially on social media, is way louder than the latest Star Wars film. Disney can’t be happy about that.
In its first weekend, Obsession opened to $17 million domestically in the US. But in its second weekend, the film did something surprising by pulling in $24 million. Most studios these days celebrate when a film doesn’t drop more than 50% on the second weekend. Obsession had a 40% surge in ticket sales, which is pretty rare, especially for a horror flick.
In fact, the only other film that’s done that in recent years is Sound of Freedom in 2023, which also rose about 39% in its second weekend. But to be fair, that was under completely different circumstances, including the studio’s very unusual “pay it forward” ticketing campaign, which saw supporters paying for tickets even when there was nobody there to actually watch the film.
Obsession is actually growing because people watched it and told other people to watch it, and those, in turn, told others to watch it too. The 96% Rotten Tomatoes-scored film has become a social media word-of-mouth phenomenon, with social feeds running reactions, debates, and discussions around the film’s ending.
But while Gen Z drove the ticket sales, largely through TikTok, I fear that studios will learn the wrong lesson from Obsession‘s success ($75 million so far on a budget of just under a million dollars). See, while everyone’s focus is on the social media frenzy, they’re forgetting that Obsession is actually a really good original film with amazing performances, especially from Inde Navarrette, who honestly deserves all the awards she gets for her portrayal of Nikki Freeman, the obsessive girlfriend who goes to great lengths to keep her boyfriend.
It proves that good original films still win at the box office, and that films that seem to be written by AI or committee or formula don’t. Audiences are tired of the same cookie-cutter films. They’re craving originality. That should be the argument for Obsession‘s win at the box office – that there’s still a big space for horror and really good small-budget films.
But knowing Hollywood, they’ll see this as proof that they need to spend more money on hiring influencers to push films on TikTok. Because when it doesn’t happen organically, they’ll try to throw money at it to force it.
Many considered it a gamble when Focus Features acquired the rights for Obsession for over $15 million after its premiere at Fantastic Fest in 2025. But let’s hope this big win pushes studios to take more chances on smaller films like these, because when they win, not only are the profits huge, but they also give up-and-coming filmmakers the chance to compete and create amazing films.
The only bad news is that if you were waiting to catch Obsession at home, you’re going to be waiting a while longer. A June 2 VOD release was originally reported, but that date has now been moved. Blumhouse has a system where films that make more than $50 million extend from a 17-day to a 31-day theatrical window, and Obsession has rocketed well past that.
Speaking to Variety, Studio head Jason Blum called the timing of a home release “a big topic of conversation at the moment” and said that he is “a big believer in a long, consistent theatrical window.”
In other words, it’s not coming very soon. While it will probably show up on VOD in a month or so, the earliest realistic estimate for a streaming debut on Peacock is probably late 2026, with Netflix potentially in 2027. That’s quite a long wait if you wanted to see it in the comfort of your own home.
If you want to be part of the watercooler conversation right now, however, you’ll need to pay to watch Obsession on the big screen. Thankfully, it’s totally worth it.
Original films still win. They always have. Obsession just reminded everyone of something the industry keeps forgetting.
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