Made for $750,000, Curry Barker's Obsession has officially earned more money worldwide than The Exorcist. The film crossed $442.6 million in global ticket sales, surpassing The Exorcist's lifetime total of $430.8 million across all its theatrical releases, according to Collider. The milestone came even as Obsession remained available on Peacock and premium digital platforms during its ongoing theatrical run.
The comparison is based on unadjusted worldwide grosses. Films with larger budgets, such as Brad Pitt's zombie blockbuster World War Z, may have out-earned Obsession in raw numbers, but no film of its size has come close to matching this kind of return.
The movie follows a lovelorn protagonist named Bear, who uses a novelty toy to wish that his crush Nikki loved him, with violent and disastrous consequences. Screen Rant described it as a blackly comedic supernatural horror. Christopher Nolan endorsed the film, and its box office run has placed it among the most successful horror films ever produced.
Obsession's rise has had real consequences for at least one other film. Soulm8te, the first spinoff from the M3GAN franchise, was quietly moved from a January 2026 theatrical release to a VOD release after the underperformance of M3GAN 2.0 in 2025. Directed by Kate Dolan and written by Dolan and Rafael Jordan, Soulm8te follows David Rysdahl as David, an engineer who begins using an android companion named Sara, played by Lily Sullivan, to cope with the death of his wife.
The premise shares significant overlap with Obsession. Both films center on a male protagonist whose coerced female love interest turns violently obsessive. By the time Soulm8te arrives on VOD, Obsession will have already saturated that territory at the box office and in the cultural conversation.
Barker's film was not the only surprise horror hit of 2026. Director Kane Parsons' Backrooms also performed well despite a reported budget of just $10 million. Both films were directed by former YouTube creators, and both outperformed major legacy franchise releases including a new Mummy reboot from Blumhouse and Evil Dead Burn, which arrived in July.
Scream 7 did manage box office success despite receiving the worst reviews in that franchise's history, according to Screen Rant, suggesting that audience appetite for horror remains strong even when critics push back. But the clearest story of the year's first half belongs to Obsession, a film that cost less than many music videos and has now outlasted one of the most iconic horror films ever made by the numbers.
Obsession continues its theatrical run while streaming on Peacock.
