Curry Barker had hoped Obsession might earn $10 million or $20 million. After the $750,000 horror movie reached $523 million worldwide, he was still trying to process how far it had gone.
“It happens so fast, there’s no way for it to settle in,” the writer-director said at the Time100 Next Gala in New York City on Oct. 29. “It still feels super fake,” he added, “and everything’s a blur.”
Obsession was shot in 20 days and stars Inde Navarrette and Michael Johnston. Its opening weekend brought in $17.2 million. The second weekend climbed 39% to $23.9 million, helping it become the highest-grossing movie ever made for less than $1 million and one of horror’s biggest box-office hits.
Barker said his expectations had been much smaller: “It was an indie movie, very small. If we tripled, quadrupled our budget, that’s a win for me.”
Asked whether he could’ve imagined his Time100 Next recognition a year earlier, Barker said he’d been busy preparing Anything But Ghosts. Obsession had already screened at the Toronto International Film Festival and secured a buyer, and he’d been hopeful about its prospects.
Seth Rogen rated Barker’s next movie, Anything But Ghosts, “even better” than Obsession in his Time100 Next tribute. He called Obsession a “cultural phenomenon.”
Barker recalled seeing the tribute while he was in a car. He and Rogen had discussed the film after Rogen watched it, but the public praise meant something more to him.
“It was one of the best moments of my life, I think,” Barker said of the tribute. “I was like, ‘This is awesome. What a stamp of approval.’”
Focus Features is reportedly pursuing an awards campaign that includes Barker for Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best Film Editing, Navarrette, 25, for Best Actress, and Johnston for Best Actor.
Obsession is streaming on Peacock.
