When we spoke with “Obsession” director Curry Barker ahead of the release of his theatrical horror debut, he said “I don’t want to put myself in a box,” and the movies he wants to make are the ones “I would be excited to go see at the theater.” As a filmmaker who grew out of a background as a content creator on YouTube, there’s a lot in the industry who would be tempted to do just that and put him and his audience into a box, but clearly there were a lot of folks just like him who wanted to simply go see something in a theater.

“Obsession” from Focus Features grossed $17.2 million at the box office this weekend, behind the likes of holdovers “The Devil Wears Prada 2” and “Michael.” But the film pulled in the the highest new opening of the weekend and an impressive result from an indie, first-time filmmaker for a movie without stars. Critics loved it and so did audiences, who gave it an A- CinemaScore. The most recent original, genre horror film to do that was “Weapons,” and only a handful of movies of its ilk have scored that high since 2019.

But you can tell too that all sorts of audiences gravitated toward “Obsession.” You could even say they were obsessed. While roughly three quarters of the audience was under 35, the Gen-Z and Millennial crowd of 25-34 was the largest quadrant. The film skewed slightly male, but 41 percent of the crowd was female. And 32 percent was Hispanic. “Obsession” also made $2.6 million in sneak preview screenings on premium large format screens this past Wednesday. And in another rarity for a horror movie, the film only dropped 11 percent between Saturday and Sunday, suggesting that this is a film capable of hanging around for a long time, including into a busy Memorial Day weekend.

As IndieWire’s review out of TIFF alluded to, there’s something very chillingly relatable about “Obsession,” that it dares to challenge men in the audience to wonder if they’re capable of doing what the protagonist does in the film by effectively taking away the autonomy of his friend he’s crushing on. Audiences have clearly responded to it, and it’s been effective in building word of mouth on that premise ever since it premiered in Toronto last fall.

At the time, we thought it was a big swing for Focus to step up and acquire “Obsession,” as the distributor isn’t usually known for more niche, genre horror. We hear the distributor also spent $14 million out of TIFF to acquire it, and for that aggressive price tag, this opening is one of the best for a festival acquisition of that size in recent memory (2025’s “Together” from Neon was acquired for a similar price tag and made $34.7 million but opened to only $6.7 million).

By getting in early and playing the long game on the festival circuit before a summer debut, Focus was able to stage a big marketing campaign that blended old school and new school tactics. There were cryptic billboards for the film and a campaign to get texts from the obsessive girlfriend Nikki in the film, a promo that got 30,000 people to sign up. But there was also a series of quests targeting gamers on the popular online forum Discord, and that too in just over a week got over a million people to play along.

It also isn’t every day that a debut filmmaker gets the luxury of their own popcorn bucket for the film or tactile “One Wish Willow” toys inspired by the mystical gizmo in the film. Focus also made the conscious effort of showing “Obsession” to exhibition partners early, and both AMC and Alamo Drafthouse stepped up with promotions and saw a bigger market share on the film than usual. AMC had the exclusive popcorn tin and secured “Obsession” some Dolby Cinema screens, while Alamo named it an Alamo Recommend, which came along with added website placement and a live-streamed Q&A event with Barker. Exhibitors will be the first to tell you how they need awareness of these movies early so they can know how to market a discovery like this one, and Focus did well to tap into their infrastructure.

Moving forward, an opening like this for “Obsession” suggests it could finish up in the range of something like “Hereditary” or “Barbarian,” two other buzzy horror films that grew word of mouth over time and came from first-time filmmakers. Ari Aster’s “Hereditary” made $90.3 million worldwide after a $13.5 million domestic opening, and Zach Cregger’s “Barbarian” opened to $10.5 million domestic and finished up with $46.1 million.

But more importantly, the success of this film opens the door for other YouTubers to make their way into the genre film space and beyond. Markiplier’s “Iron Lung” is a fantastic indie success story, and A24 is working with another filmmaker on “Backrooms,” coming later this month.

“If we really want to make exhibition feel whole again, we need more movies like ‘Obsession,’” Focus Features distribution chief Lisa Bunnell told IndieWire. “It’s nice to see a movie that surprises people and shows them there’s a lot of talent out there left to be seen. We’re taking seriously that people are discovering talent and content in new ways, and instead of dismissing it we’re saying, how are we able to take this to the big screen and really showcase the talent? I think that inspires young people. And if you can give them hope … that’s a beautiful thing.”