Directed by Curry Barker · Masters of Horror profile
A lovesick music-store clerk uses a novelty wishing toy to make his co-worker love him, and gets exactly what he asked for. Made for about $750,000, it became 2026's biggest horror film at about $525 million worldwide.
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2026's No. 1 horror film · Spotlight
A $750,000 wish that became the horror story of the year.
Bear, an affable music-store worker, has a hopeless crush on his co-worker Nikki. Instead of telling her, he uses a One Wish Willow novelty toy to make her love him. The wish works, and that is the problem.
Shot in Los Angeles in 26 days on a budget that topped out at $750,000. Northeast Times
World premiere in TIFF Midnight Madness. Focus Features buys worldwide rights for about $15 million after a 24-hour bidding war. Forbes
Opens in 2,615 U.S. theaters with $17.2 million, well ahead of the $10 million analysts expected. Northeast Times
Weekend two grows 39 percent to $23.9 million. Weekends two through five all beat the opening. Northeast Times, Forbes
Fourth weekend drops just 7 percent to $25.6 million, the best fourth-weekend hold ever for a horror film, beating The Blair Witch Project. Becomes Focus Features' highest-grossing release. NBCUniversal
Passes Blair Witch as the top-grossing festival acquisition ever, then Enter the Dragon as the top-grossing film made for under $1 million. Daily Collegian, ComicBook.com
Crosses $400 million worldwide. Home release on digital June 30 and disc July 14, then Peacock July 17. Universal Pictures Home Entertainment, Peacock
Closes its U.S. run at about $263.5 million, after a peak of 3,068 theaters. FanBolt
Moves to Netflix, just in time for awards season. Forbes
Written, directed and edited by Curry Barker. Executive produced by Jason Blum. Produced by James Harris, Haley Nicole Johnson, Christian Mercuri and Roman Viaris. Distributed by Focus Features in the U.S. and Universal Pictures internationally. Rated R.
Obsession out-earned every other horror film of 2026, ahead of Backrooms and Resident Evil. It beat 2025's top horror film, The Conjuring: Last Rites, and sits behind only four horror films ever, led by It. See horror in 2026.
Sources: Wikipedia, Northeast Times, NBCUniversal, Forbes, Rotten Tomatoes, Daily Collegian, Universal Pictures Home Entertainment, FanBolt, ComicBook.com, Peacock. Figures as reported through November 3, 2026.
Small-budget studio horror becomes a box-office event.
Obsession, written and directed by Curry Barker. It has grossed about $525 million worldwide, including about $263 million in the U.S. and Canada, on a production budget of about $750,000. That makes it the fifth highest-grossing horror film of all time, unadjusted for inflation. Backrooms (about $402.5 million), Resident Evil (about $400 million) and Scream 7 (about $214 million) round out the top four for 2026.
About $750,000. Reports range from $600,000 to $1 million. It was shot in Los Angeles in 26 days in late October 2024, then bought by Focus Features for about $15 million after its premiere at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival.
Obsession came out on digital on June 30, 2026 and on 4K UHD, Blu-ray and DVD on July 14. It started streaming on Peacock on July 17 and moves to Netflix on November 17, 2026. Check JustWatch for current U.S. listings.
Curry Barker, a YouTube sketch and horror creator known for That's a Bad Idea and Milk & Serial. He wrote, directed and edited Obsession, his first studio feature. His next film, Anything But Ghosts, opens May 7, 2027.
Horror is the box office. The internet is the campfire.