Obsession Box Office Continues Unheard-Of Growth With Shocking Week 3 Boost

Published May 30, 2026, 11:34 AM EDT

Per Deadline, as of Saturday morning, Obsession is projected to earn a 3-day total of $28.5 million at the domestic box office by the end of the weekend. This sees it climbing an additional 19% during its third weekend, which is essentially unheard of for a wide release, especially one in the typically frontloaded horror genre. It will also be passing the $100 million domestic milestone this weekend, beating 2019's Downton Abbey to become the highest-grossing Focus Features release in North America.

This rise is even more shocking considering the factors working against Obsession. For one thing, its sophomore weekend fell over the Memorial Day holiday, which should have seen it pulling in a much higher volume of moviegoers than a non-holiday frame like this weekend. Additionally, it is facing competition from A24's Backrooms (another buzzy horror movie debut from a YouTuber, the 20-year-old Kane Parsons), which is expected to shatter records this weekend with the third-biggest domestic debut of the year so far, outgrossing the opening weekends of huge 2026 hits including Scream 7 and The Devil Wears Prada 2.

However, it seems like those stellar Obsession reviews (on Rotten Tomatoes it has a Certified Fresh 96% score from critics and a Verified Hot 95% score from audiences) are seeing its word of mouth continuing to build as its run continues. In the process, the movie has entered uncharted territory. Horror movies often have severe week 2 drops, falling 60% or more in their sophomore frames, but even the titles in the genre that have solid sophomore weekends don't also grow during their third weekends.

Below, see a breakdown of the third weekend performance of every horror movie on the chart of the 150 smallest week 2 drops of all time for movies that played in more than 2,000 theaters:

While it is unlikely that Obsession is the only horror movie in history to have had a week-on-week rise from its sophomore weekend to its third weekend, its string of positive numbers has literally never happened before at this scale, in the entire history of cinematic horror. It remains to be seen if it is able to climb again during its fourth weekend. However, while it will have to drop at some point, in the meantime, it has already earned more than 133 times its reported $750,000 budget, making it a landmark success by any measure.

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Release Date May 15, 2026

Runtime 108 minutes

Director Curry Barker

Writers Curry Barker

Producers Christian Mercuri, James Harris, Roman Viaris, Haley Nicole Johnson