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Director Curry Barker said Netflix bid to put Obsession straight to streaming before Focus Features helped it become the biggest box office success story of 2026.
The comedian-turned-horror-filmmaker talked about the early days of his record-breaking low-budget flick during a conversation on Q with Tom Power. We all know how Obsession turned out, but Barker said offers for the project nearly kept it out of theaters for a very different life as a streaming exclusive.
Barker said an early screening almost immediately resulted in “everybody” putting in offers to distribute Obsession. Neon, Focus, A24, and more wanted to bring Barker’s twisted monkey’s paw tale under their banner. Focus eventually won the war, but not before Netflix offered to throw a wrench into things.
“All of these companies are wanting to do your movie,” Barker recalled hearing from his manager. “At this time, I’m still thinking maybe small theatrical release. Maybe they just want to acquire it, and also, as a director, I’m thinking, I’m scared of, ‘Are they going to want to change my movie? Are they going to want to take out certain parts that I like?’
“So many questions were being thrown around. I think Netflix was in the conversation at one point. They put in an offer to just put it straight on Netflix. All of these conversations started.”
With the odd exception, Netflix has infamously strayed from theatrical releases in the past. Before Paramount swooped in to acquire Warner Bros., the streaming giant was reportedly only interested in keeping its new slate of films in theaters for a little more than two weeks. Its movie boss, Dan Lin, said in June that the company “just won’t work with” filmmakers who push to bring their films to theaters.
All signs point to a streaming-exclusive release for Obsession should Barker have signed with Netflix – but we all know that’s not what happened. Instead, audiences spent months swarming movie theaters to see how stars Inde Navarrette, Michael Johnston, Cooper Tomlinson, and Megan Lawless helped bring the director’s vision to life. It brought home massive early returns at the box office on its notably low $750,000 budget and then continued to surprise before reaching an unbelievable global total of $519.4 million (via Box Office Mojo).
It was an unprecedented run that almost didn’t happen if Netflix had proved victorious. There’s no telling if Obsession would have had the same impact if it remained available to stream from the start, but Barker and company are probably happy enough with how things turned out. Although he and Tomlinson are still working on getting their next feature, Anything But Ghosts, ready for release, the director does have some ideas for a sequel in mind, even if it will be a while before Obsession 2 gets off the ground.
For more, you can read what Barker had to say about Gen Z’s opinions on “slop” in movies. You can also check out how Universal brought Navarrette’s Nikki to Halloween Horror Nights and then see IGN’s top-reviewed horror movies of the year. Obsession, for example, earned an 8/10.
Michael Cripe
Freelance Writer
Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He’s best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).
