From UK to India to Mexico and Saudi Arabia, moviegoers are transfixed by Nikki and Bear’s toxic relationship as Focus Features/Blumhouse’s Obsession now counts a running global cume of $286.5M.
That arguably makes it the highest grossing movie to ever be picked up at a film festival (that is after being auctioned post premiere; not a market package ala when Paramount acquired Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival out of Cannes), beating Blair Witch Project‘s reported final global of $248.6M. That found footage horror pic was acquired out of Sundance 1999 for $1M+ by Artisan.
As we first told you, Focus Features picked up the Capstone $750K financed Obsession for $15M+ out of TIFF Midnight (North American and some foreign territories). For quite some time post Covid, film festival pick-ups have been sluggish (though foreign films do sell at Cannes) with the yields at the box office often lower than the frenzied, ratcheted up auction prices. Let the record show that Obsession provides hope to such fest marketplaces, not to mention it underscores how genre movies are the best bang for their buck.
Stateside at $19M, the Curry Barker directed, Indie Navarrette, Michael Johnston, Cooper Tomlinson starring horror romance saw its fourth consecutive weekend (out of five) best its opening frame ($17.1M). The pic’s running cume of $188.3M is pacing 7% ahead of 1999’s summer breakout spooky movie, The Sixth Sense; that Oscar nominated movie finaling at $293.5M domestic.
In addition, Obsession bested the global cume of Blumhouse and Universal’s Oscar winning Get Out which finale at $259.9M. Why comp to that? Because that’s another horror movie made at a thrifty price, that being $4.5M, and which launched a directing career out of a canon, that being Jordan Peele’s. While Obsession has bested Star Wars: Mandalorian and Grogu‘s domestic take of $165M, Nikki and Bear have yet to shoot down the bounty hunter and baby Yoda’s space ship around the globe, that $165M net production now at a global running cume of $315.1M.
Broken down, Obsession made $34.1M in its fifth global weekend (international 59 territories was $15.1M; of that Universal’s markets minted $11.8M, non-Uni markets were $3.3M). Overall foreign cume is $98.1M (Uni territories $77.4M, non-Uni is $20.6M).
The UK & Ireland enjoyed another outstanding hold this weekend at No.3 in the market with $2M; Disclosure Day taking the top spot there. The Barker movie is now the highest-grossing 18-rated Horror of all-time. The weekend dropped an exceptional -20%, despite good weather after a week of rain, with all other holdover films collectively dropping -64%. The cume has now surpassed the lifetimes of Get Out, Smile, Weapons, and Nosferatu, becoming the seventh-biggest Horror of all-time. The weekend totaled $2.0M to reach $17.7M cume.
Obsession remains the No. 1 Hollywood pic in India currently with $1.8M this weekend for an $8M cume, ahead of the lifetimes of Horror tentpoles The Nun, The Nun 2, Annabelle Creation, and Final Destination Bloodlines to become the third biggest horror film of all-time in the market.
The movie ranked as No. 1 in U.A.E. and No.2 in Saudi Arabia behind local hit 7 Dogs. The weekend totaled $1.6M overall in the Middle East region to reach $12.4M cume as the second-biggest horror film there.
Mexico’s $1M comes with both the World Cup and Disclosure Day invading the country, a -20% hold for a No. 5 rank his weekend. The $6.8M cume has now surpassed the lifetimes of Invisible Man and Scream VI.
The Philippines saw a +97% uplift in Wknd 3, adding $500K to reach $1.3M cume, surpassing the lifetimes of M3GAN and Weapons.
Israel also held in weekend 3, -4% with $500K and a $1.8M running total, besting the lifetimes of Annabelle Creation, The Nun, Happy Death Day, and Smile 2.
Nikki and Bear were No. 2 in the Netherlands with $400K and a $3.2M total, that cume ahead of such lifetimes as Weapons and Smile 2 since last weekend and is on track to overtake Sinners today.
It’s fair to say for many around the globe, cat sandwich never tasted so good.
| Top Weekend Holdovers | |||||
| Territory | Wk # | Locations | Wknd | Drop | Cume (in millions) |
| UK & Ireland | 5 | 527 | $2.048 | -20% | $17.697 |
| India | 3 | 647 | $1.772 | -18% | $7.958 |
| Mexico | 5 | 459 | $1.037 | -20% | $6.847 |
| U.A.E. | 4 | 59 | $755K | -26% | $4.619 |
| Saudi Arabia | 4 | 59 | $641K | -32% | $4.530 |
| Philippines | 3 | 113 | $522K | +97% | $1.275 |
| Israel | 3 | 33 | $509K | -4% | $1.824 |
| Netherlands | 5 | 99 | $434K | -19% | $3.191 |
| Italy | 5 | 226 | $391K | -27% | $4.676 |
| Poland | 5 | 127 | $329K | -25% | $2.823 |
| Turkey | 5 | 117 | $318K | +54% | $1.325 |
| Norway | 4 | 48 | $267K | +51% | $1.403 |
| Argentina | 5 | 50 | $254K | -2% | $1.217 |
| Others Middle East | 4 | 13 | $227K | -64% | $3.210 |
| Belgium | 5 | 39 | $225K | -17% | $1.272 |