Every awards season produces a movie that forces Hollywood to reconsider its own rules and bias. This year that movie did not arrive from a fall festival or a boutique label. It came from a YouTuber.
“Obsession,” the breakout horror sensation from writer-director Curry Barker, continues to do unprecedented business, posting $19 million in its fifth weekend of release. The more remarkable detail is that the low-budget film has now strung together four consecutive weekends larger than its already-impressive $17 million debut, a trajectory almost unheard of in the modern theatrical era. “Obsession” has generated $265 million globally, making it the highest-grossing release of all time for Focus Features. And that figure reframes the entire conversation, especially where awards are concerned. The question is no longer whether audiences are obsessed with “Obsession.” It is whether the Academy will be too.
For years, the genre-distribution conversation has been dominated by a single brand. A24 turned the elevated genre film into a prestige category unto itself. “Obsession” is, in many ways, the most non-A24 movie of the modern era: A broad, commercial and unapologetic crowd-pleaser that is making the money specialty labels rarely see.
