Netflix Almost Buried ‘Obsession’ on Streaming Before It Became Horror’s Biggest Surprise
At this point, it’s almost impossible to picture Curry Barker’s ‘Obsession’ as anything other than a big-screen event. The YouTube-born horror hit turned a tiny indie production into a box office juggernaut, and it went on to become the first original film released in the 2020s to pass the $500 million mark worldwide. But as the filmmaker keeps revealing, the road to theaters was far less certain than the final numbers suggest.
The premise itself is deceptively simple. A young man played by Michael Johnston uses a novelty-shop trinket called the “One Wish Willow” to make his secret crush, played by Inde Navarrette, fall for him, and the wish curdles into a nightmare. After its 2025 Toronto International Film Festival premiere, the film sparked a bidding war and sold to Focus Features for around $15 million, which The New Yorker reported was the highest price ever paid for a genre movie in TIFF history.
Now, a year later, Barker has pulled back the curtain on who else wanted his movie. Speaking with Tom Power, he recalled waking up the morning after the premiere to missed calls from his manager, agent, and financier, only to learn a bidding war had broken out. According to Barker, pretty much everyone wanted in, with Neon, Focus, and A24 among the suitors.
Netflix was also at the table, but with a very different plan in mind. “They put in an offer to just put it straight on Netflix,” Barker said on CBC’s ‘Q’, confirming that the streamer’s pitch would have bypassed cinemas altogether.
Focus ultimately won out with its theatrical strategy. Barker says the film cost approximately $600,000 to $700,000 to make, which made the deal seem almost impossible to him and his collaborators at the time.
The bet on cinemas paid off in spectacular fashion. ‘Obsession’ opened at #3 with $17.2 million, then rose 39.3% in its second weekend to $23.96 million, a rare feat for a horror release. It became the first film since Steven Spielberg’s ‘E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial’ to increase in both its second and third weekends of release.
You wished for this. Official trailer for OBSESSION, only in theaters May 15.
— Obsession (@obsessionmovie) March 11, 2026
Text 724-876-4554 🖤 pic.twitter.com/rNfs9wfwml
The staying power only got more absurd from there. Its fourth weekend brought in $25.6 million domestically with a drop of just 7%, the best fourth-weekend hold ever for a horror film, topping the record previously held by ‘The Blair Witch Project’. Along the way, it dethroned ‘Downton Abbey’ as Focus Features’ biggest global earner.
Later figures put the film at $263.4 million in North America and $238.1 million internationally, surpassing Pixar’s ‘Elemental’ to become the highest-grossing original movie of the post-pandemic era. It is also the highest-grossing festival acquisition ever, which makes the Netflix alternative look like a very expensive road not taken. Fans online seem to agree, with one reply under the viral post simply saying they were glad that didn’t happen.
Barker’s interview also revealed a second what-if. Producer James Harris originally approached him about expanding ‘The Chair,’ his viral 2023 short, into a feature, and Barker already had that screenplay written. Instead, he pitched the story of a man whose wish makes a woman dangerously obsessed with him, and Harris encouraged him to write it.
That choice has clearly worked out, and his calendar is filling fast. He is directing ‘Anything But Ghosts,’ a horror-comedy co-written with Cooper Tomlinson, with Aaron Paul and Bryce Dallas Howard in the cast and Blumhouse and Focus involved again. He is also attached to ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’, proving that Hollywood’s appetite for Barker’s brand of horror is only growing.
Do you think Obsession would have become a $500 million hit if Netflix had released it instead?
Have something to add? Let us know in the comments!
