The breakout hit movie of 2026, Obsession, is now positioning itself to sweep the awards season, with Inde Navarette and Curry Barker leading the charge. The title, which smashed box office expectations earlier this year, plans to enter every eligible category at the Oscars. This obsession with Obsession is ostensibly a sentiment shared by cast, crew and movie patrons alike, or is it?
Curry Barker, a founder of the YouTube channel “That’s a bad idea,” made his feature film debut with Obsession, receiving a budget of $750,000 for the picture. Focus Pictures eventually acquired the distribution rights to the film for just south of $15 million. A big investment from Focus Pictures at the time, taking a chance on the YouTuber-turned-director. However, in previous years, famed content creator Markiplier saw some success with his movie adaptation of the video game Iron Lung. Additionally, the creator of the famed horror YouTube series Backrooms, Kane Parsons, released his own film by the same name just weeks after Obsession. Suddenly, there is newfound faith in Hollywood for youth trying to make the transition from the phone screen to the film screen.
The investment from Focus Pictures immediately paid off, with Obsession earning $17 million in its debut weekend, $23 million in its second weekend and $26 million in its third weekend. An unheard-of feat, the film becomes the first since Spielberg’s E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial to increase in box office earnings across the first three weekends of a film's release.
Now, with the theatrical window over and the awards chase beginning, Obsession sits at over $500 million in global box office revenue; a figure that is 667 times greater than the original budget for the film and 33 times greater than the distribution rights cost.
This financial and critical success has worked out nicely for Inde Navarette, who finds herself in contention for an Academy Award nomination (ignoring the category fraud of running her in Best Actress instead of Best Supporting Actress) and as a focal point for the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Mutant saga as Rogue.
Curry Barker has become one of the hottest commodities in Hollywood as every major studio is hoping to procure the young phenom for its director lineups. Barker’s next film, which is currently under wraps, will be under the Universal and Blumhouse umbrellas.
Not every crew member is receiving the same opportunities or support that Navarette or Barker has. The art director of the film, Sally Choi, took to Instagram shortly after Obsession eclipsed $200 million at the box office. Choi made note that she was only paid $300 a day for the film and “no mileage.” Choi goes on to say, “I did know the rate beforehand and agreed to it, but at the time I was living paycheck to paycheck. This is the reality of most filmmakers, especially those who work below the line.”
Shortly after, Barker was asked about Choi’s Instagram post. Barker expressed his appreciation for the art department and later on said he hoped that the success of the film would open doors in the industry for everyone who worked on the film, as it has for him. The main point of contention in his response was, “This movie was made for so little money that it's typical that the only people who [directly] benefit from its financial success are the people who took on some sort of risk.” Barker, who did not produce the film, does not see the immediate financial impact from the box office of the film either. However, it does raise the question of whether the cast and crew should receive some benefit from working on a film that punched well above its weight at the box office.
The harsh reality is that not every film is as successful as Obsession. The top end films belonging to major franchises or starring a Hollywood A-lister may turn a profit; however, 80% of films lose money after production, distribution and marketing. The belief is that the industry standard simply cannot be that if a movie succeeds then the cast and crew receive a kickback, because if a movie fails then the losses are not recouped by the cast and crew.
As Barker noted, distributors and producers are taking that financial risk, knowing that four in five films do not turn a profit, hoping that the films they choose to back can be that exception. While some in the industry make an effort to provide bonuses to those who worked on their films, it is difficult to make this a common practice in the film industry.
In defense of Choi, smaller budget films typically see the crew take small salaries so that they can live out their passions and see their film realized. It stings even more when the studio receives the massive windfall of the financial successes of the film after the crew worked for measly wages. These films and studios are relying directly on the communal effort of the crew for a production to go smoothly. So, it makes sense to reward a crew when that shared labor results in hundreds of millions of dollars. Yet, the financial risk of the film industry will make this a difficult thing to barter for.
Barker’s response is one that understands the industry and the role of the crew. Those who take the financial risk are going to continue to reap the reward, but they will also have to accept the losses. What Navarette, Barker and Choi must do is leverage the success of the film and parlay that into future career opportunities. It takes a village to make a film, and it only makes sense that the whole crew's career is uplifted when it does well.
‘Fine Print’ is a column analyzing how business and legal forces impact our enjoyment of arts and entertainment.
Brayden Rogers is a member of the Class of 2028 in the College of Arts and Sciences. He is a columnist for the Arts & Culture department and can be reached at brogers@cornellsun.com.
