The plot of Obsession ends in a very bleak place, but the movie itself achieved maybe the happiest Hollywood ending of the year. It racked up box-office records while making money hand over fist, helped usher in a new wave of YouTube creators, and vaulted director Curry Barker to the A-list, with his cast, including future X-Men star Inde Navarrette, following not far behind.
However, there was a time not so long ago that Obsession was just an independent film clutching a One Wish Willow while dreaming of a best-case scenario, and its path almost took a different turn. As Barker explained on the Q with Tom Power podcast (via Dread Central), there’s a timeline where his movie—which premiered in September 2025 at the Toronto International Film Festival—went straight to streaming instead.
“I knew that the movie played well. I knew that the scares were scary and the laughs were funny, but I didn’t know how it would play in other theaters or if that would be the same case everywhere,” he said, recalling his expectations even after the extremely enthusiastic reception the film got at TIFF.
The next day, he began to realize how much of an impact Obsession had made, not just from the audience, but on an industry eagerly searching for the next horror hit. After noting an array of early-morning missed calls on his phone, including from his agent and the movie’s financer, he talked to his manager.
“He’s like, ‘Dude, everybody’s putting in a bid for this thing … every company.’ … At this time, I’m still thinking maybe a small theatrical release. Maybe they just want to acquire it. And also, as a director, I’m thinking, I’m scared of, ‘Are they going to want to change my movie? Are they going to want to take out certain parts that I like?’ And so, so many questions were being thrown around.”
Barker continued. “I think Netflix was in the conversation at one point. They put in an offer to just put it straight on Netflix. So all of these conversations started.”
As is now written in film history, Focus Features ended up coming out on top, and Obsession made over $500 million in theaters worldwide. That’s not to say it wouldn’t have found success on Netflix—but going back to that first festival screening, it feels like the movie playing in jam-packed theaters was a crucial part of its meteoric success.
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