By Jack Hunt.
We live in a generation where Hollywood and movie production companies spend £150 million or more on a single blockbuster film. But a 26-year-old YouTuber, Curry Baker, has become the top story of 2026 after creating a financial success that made every movie and Hollywood executive rethink what audiences really want.
Curry Barker made Obsession in just 20 days on a £750,000 budget. The premise of the film is extremely simple: a guy makes a wish for his crush to fall in love with him, he doesn’t know that this wish means that she is stripped of her free will and that the girl who “falls in love with him” isn’t who he thought she was.
In its third weekend, the film made another £26.4 million, pushing its worldwide earnings to £148 million. These are insane numbers considering it’s a direct rival to another blockbuster Hollywood film Backrooms. Returns like this are unheard of in modern cinema.
Disney’s Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu, which had a budget of £165 million, had a 70% drop off in the second week at the box office. Meanwhile, Obsession with no major film stars and franchise history just climbed all the way to the top through word of mouth and the fact that it is a good movie.
A lot of the praise should go to the film itself. The marketing team placed billboards across LA and New York, which made the main character, Niki, declare her love for everyone; they even set up phone numbers so that the audience could text Niki. The box office credited the debut to good marketing and word of mouth carrying it the week after.
The performance from Inde Navarette has been praised by every reviewer and every person who has watched the film. She gives a terrifyingly good performance that could be her way to break out into bigger roles.
As for Curry Barker, we are all excited to see what he will do next. A studio is so keen to work with him that they have offered him £10 million for his next original project however, a bidding war is expected to happen for his projects. He describes the response to Obsession as “a changing point in my life,” which is hard to disagree with.
Obsession proves that in 2026, the most dangerous thing in Hollywood isn’t a big franchise hit, but it’s a 26-year-old with a camera and a great movie idea.
