The irony about this will be felt in Hollywood for years.
OBSESSION is about to become Hollywood’s monkey’s paw.
Curry Barker made the movie for roughly $750,000, and it has already grossed more than $200 million worldwide. Some high-end projections have it finishing much higher.
Meanwhile, expensive tentpoles like MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE, THE MANDALORIAN AND GROGU, and DISCLOSURE DAY are struggling to reach the heights studios expected from them.
So Hollywood will look at OBSESSION and BACKROOMS and decide Gen Z wants cheap movies from young internet filmmakers.
That is not entirely wrong.
Barker and Kane Parsons brought clear voices, existing audiences, and concepts people already cared about. They also had experienced producers helping turn those ideas into actual theatrical movies.
The problem is Hollywood never knows when to stop.
They will chase every YouTuber with a horror short, flood theaters and streaming with forced imitations, then blame the audience when most of them fail.
OBSESSION succeeded because it felt specific, strange, and personal.
The copies will be made because someone saw a spreadsheet.
How long before Hollywood turns its newest source of original filmmakers into another dead genre?