The director of “Obsession”, Curry Barker, said that Netflix was interested in the end and that if he had accepted the proposal, the distribution would be made only by the streaming platform without going through the cinemas.
© Universal Pictures
29/09/2026
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Swhether or not a fan of horror movies, you are highly likely to have heard of “Obsession”. With the argument and performance of youtuber Curry Barker, the film became one of the best box office films of the year and helped catapult Inde Navarrette's career as an actress.
However, Barker recalls in an interview for the podcast Q with Tom Power that, when the film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in September 2025, the possibility of not releasing the film in the movie theaters and only streaming through Netflix was considered.
Barker recalls that the audience of the festival reacted positively to the display of “Obsession”, but that it had still been doubtful whether the audience of different markets would have the same kind of opinion.
The next day, Barker woke up with a series of messages and missed calls, with the agent himself reporting that there were several stakeholders interested in distributing the film. Among them, according to the director of 27, was Netflix.
“ I think that at some point Netflix was involved in conversations,” Barker said. “They launched a proposal to take [‘Obsession’] directly to Netflix.”.
“Obsession” had a global debut in mid-May and, in August 2025, had already invoiced over 500 million dollars all over the world – an impressive brand considering that it had a budget below a million dollars.
Although the passage through the cinemas had been favorable to “Obsession”, it is worth remembering that there were other films that were released on Netflix and also achieved success – with “KPop Demon Hunters” to be the latest example with regard to new intellectual and franchise properties.