Obsession Just Beat Bruce Lee

By Chris Snellgrove
| Published 21 seconds ago

In the world of Obsession, the One Wish Willow is an obscenely powerful artifact that you can buy over the counter. With a single wish, you can achieve fabulous wealth, get your crush to obsess with you…anything you want, really, though your desires are likely to backfire. Despite its fantastic premise, Obsession is relatively grounded, so we never see the One Wish Willow grant anyone kung-fu fighting skills, a la The Matrix. Despite this, however, Obsession just managed to inexplicably defeat the greatest martial arts master who ever lived: Bruce Lee!

Recently, Curry Barker’s horror film, which was made for a measly $750,000, reached an astounding new record by earning over $400 million worldwide. For context, that’s far more than The Mandalorian and Grogu, which has earned $334 million against a budget of $165 million. Now, Obsession is officially the highest-grossing movie that was made for less than a million dollars. To achieve that record, it had to earn more than the most beloved kung-fu film in Hollywood history: Bruce Lee’s Enter the Dragon.

A Bloody Great Achievement

It’s kind of astounding to think that Obsession came out eight weeks ago. It only took this horror film two months to become the biggest film of the summer (at least, until Spider-Man: Brand New Day comes out), despite some heavy competition. Like, who could have imagined a micro-budget spooky film from a virtually unknown director could trounce everyone from Supergirl to He-Man? Now, eight months after its release, Obsession has passed an important landmark, earning $400 million worldwide against a budget of $750,000. Now, it’s officially the highest-grossing movie ever made for under a million dollars.

Previously, that record was held by the Bruce Lee kung-fu classic Enter the Dragon. That martial arts masterpiece was made for $850,000; after it came out in 1973, it earned a total of $400 million at the box office before it left theaters for good. For over half a century, no film managed to beat this ratio of low budget and high box office earnings, though a few movies deserve honorable mention. For example, Rocky earned $225 million against a $1 million budget, and The Blair Witch Project earned $248.6 million against the same budget Obsession had: $750,000.

Bruce All Fighty

At the risk of glazing Curry Barker too much, the comparison to Blair Witch really highlights what a cinematic achievement Obsession is. Back in 1999, $750,000 was enough to create a found footage horror movie with amateur actors and bad cameras. Now, that same budget can be used to create a polished film with amazing cinematography and professional acting. Does that make breakout star Inde Navarette the new Bruce Lee, though? It depends on your perspective. Obsession earned more than what Enter the Dragon earned pre-inflation; if we account for inflation, Lee’s own breakout film earned over $2 billion in today’s dollars.

Regardless of inflation, however, surpassing a beloved ‘70s Bruce Lee movie is another amazing accomplishment for Obsession. The little horror film that could continues to prove that you don’t need a huge budget in order to make a successful movie: you just need a good script, talented actors, and a director with a genuine vision. Those have always been the ingredients for great movies, and as Barker recently reminded The Hollywood Reporter, younger audiences in particular are “tired of slop” and are “hungry for movies that are original.” Now, if only the studios pumping out endless sequels, prequels, remakes, and reboots would get the freaking memo!