The Obsession craze continues with Focus Features‘ highest grossing movie ever leading Monday with $4.2M in its fourth week, ahead of Paramount and Miramax’s No. 1 weekend opener, Scary Movie, which wasn’t far behind with $4.1M.
Obsession‘s domestic cume stands at $156.1M with a global haul north of $229.3M. Scary Movie through four days is $58.4M.
A24’s highest grossing movie of all-time, Backrooms, took third yesterday with $3.2M (running cume of $138M) with Amazon MGM Studios’ Masters of the Universe in fourth with $2.1M (running cume of $31.6M).
We hear that Game 3 of the NBA finals between the Knicks and the Spurs sank pics’ ticket sales in the NYC market by as much as 60% to 70% for some off their Sunday results.
But back to Obsession, the weekend holds for this horror romance are unprecedented. Focus’ approach with rolling the movie out has been old school, ala theatrical releases in the 1980s. They didn’t go uber wide in weekend one at 4,000 theaters, rather, 2,615 sites during the pic’s opening weekend. There are smaller markets which are still discovering the film, with the current theater count at 2,900. We’re also getting reports of Rocky Horror Picture Show-type vibe with the Curry Barker-directed movie spurring audiences to shout back at the screen. Currently, Obsession is pacing 16% ahead of Jordan Peele’s Oscar winner Get Out, another Blumhouse production by the way, which ended its domestic run at $176M.
THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, Heather Donahue, 1999. © Artisan Entertainment/courtesy Everett Collection (image upgraded to 17.5 x 12 in)
As we told you, Obsession became Focus Features’ highest grossing pic at the global box office this past weekend, the pic’s cume currently well north of $229.3M. Now, there’s an incorrect narrative out there by some outlets that Obsession is the biggest film festival acquisition ever at the global box office, beating IFC/Lionsgate/Miramax’s Fahrenheit 9/11 ($222.4M). Focus Features picked up Obsession out of TIFF as we first told you for $15M+ (North America and a bulk of foreign). When it comes to uber successful movies at the box office that were picked up at a film festival, that list is rather short (few have seen north of $100M worldwide). However, it’s Blair Witch Project that Obsession has to beat, and that’s definitely within range with that 1999 Artisan acquisition finaling at $248.6M around the globe. That could even happen this week. Artisan acquired Blair Witch Project out of Sundance for north of $1M with reports out that time believing the distributor was out of their mind. Fahrenheit 9/11 when you get down to the nitty gritty wasn’t a bidding war title when it won the Palme D’Or at Cannes in 2004. The Weinsteins (who financed the pic via Miramax) were pressured by Disney to re-acquire the controversial doc and ultimately they distributed it via a partnership with Lionsgate and IFC Films (aka the Fellowship Adventure Group), which also handled their Kevin Smith hot potato movie Dogma. Obsession was originally made for $750K completely bankrolled by the Christian Mercuri-led Capstone.
Get excited: Obsession is within close distance of freaking out Disney/Lucasfilm’s Mandalorian and Grogu, that pic currently with a running North American total of $156.8M.