• Obsession earned $2.6M in Thursday-Wednesday previews, topping Smile’s $2M preview number before its $22.6M opening.
• The film was made for just $750,000 — and Focus Features bought it for $15 million after its TIFF debut.
• Director Curry Barker is a YouTube filmmaker making his big-screen debut with the romantic horror film.
• Obsession holds a 95% critics score and 96% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes heading into opening weekend.
• The film is projected to earn between $9.5M and $14.5M in its domestic opening weekend.

Obsession is arriving in theaters this weekend with serious momentum behind it — and the early numbers are backing up the hype. The romantic horror film from first-time big-screen director Curry Barker pulled in $2.6 million in previews spanning Thursday night through Wednesday shows, a figure that already puts it ahead of where Paramount’s Smile stood before that film opened to $22.6 million.

For a movie that cost $750,000 to make, that’s a pretty stunning place to be.

Barker — who built his following through his YouTube channel “that’s a bad idea” — made the film on a shoestring, then watched his life change overnight when Focus Features and Blumhouse picked it up for $15 million following its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2025. “That’s the moment my life changed,” Barker said in a recent New Yorker featurette. The film’s actual budget — which he confirmed at $750,000 — is even lower than the $1 million figure previously reported by The Hollywood Reporter.

The movie follows Baron “Bear” Bailey (Michael Johnston), a young man who comes across a trinket that grants him the ability to wish the girl of his dreams — his co-worker and childhood friend Nikki Freeman (Inde Navarrette) — into falling in love with him. As you’d expect, chaos follows. The film almost earned an NC-17 rating due to one particularly violent scene that had to be toned down before release.

It’s now booked at 2,542 locations, including 435 premium large-format screens — a wide release footprint that makes its microscopic budget feel almost absurd in context.

Critics and Audiences Are All In

Obsession is riding into the weekend with a 95% Certified Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 110 reviews, alongside a 96% audience score. What makes those numbers even more remarkable is the timeline: the film allowed critics to share scores as early as March, when it briefly hit 97% — which Forbes noted would make it the best-reviewed wide-release film of 2026 at that point. It’s dipped a few points since more reviews came in, but the reception has stayed overwhelmingly positive.

Its closest comps in the indie horror space are A24’s Heretic and Talk to Me, both of which opened to $1.2M in Friday previews before earning $10.8M and $10.4M respectively in their opening weekends. Obsession has already cleared both of those preview marks.

Current box office projections put the film at around $11 million for its opening weekend domestically, with a range of $9.5M to $14.5M according to BoxOfficeTheory — a significant jump from the $7M estimate when tracking first began, and miles ahead of an early BoxOffice Pro range of just $4M to $6M. Given its $750,000 budget, the film technically only needs to gross $1.8 million to break even on production costs alone, meaning this weekend’s haul will already be a massive win before a single international dollar is counted.

What It’s Up Against This Weekend

The bigger question heading into the weekend is whether Obsession can shake up a box office that was shaping up to be a two-horse race. Lionsgate’s Michael is heading into its fourth weekend, and 20th Century Studios’ Devil Wears Prada 2 is in its third — both were tracking north of $20 million each before Obsession’s preview numbers landed. New Line’s Mortal Kombat 2 is also still in the mix, though it’s expected to drop around 60% to roughly $15M.

Also opening this weekend are Guy Ritchie’s In the Grey — starring Henry Cavill, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Eiza González as a covert ops team on a near-impossible heist mission — and Is God Is, the feature directorial debut of Aleshea Harris, adapted from her award-winning stage play and starring Kara Young, Mallori Johnson, Janelle Monáe, and Sterling K. Brown. Is God Is is sitting at an extraordinary 98% on Rotten Tomatoes. Neither is expected to challenge Obsession’s numbers this weekend, but both are generating serious critical attention.

Looking further ahead, Obsession will face two horror releases in the coming weeks — Paramount’s Passenger and A24’s Backrooms — so this opening weekend matters. The town is clearly paying close attention to Barker: beyond Obsession, his follow-up film starring Aaron Paul has already landed at Focus Features, and he’s set to direct a new Texas Chainsaw Massacre movie for A24.

For now, though, all eyes are on this weekend. A $2.6M preview haul from a film that cost less than most music videos to produce is the kind of story Hollywood genuinely loves — and it’s only just getting started.

The post Obsession Earns $2.6M in Previews Before Opening Weekend appeared first on Cream.

• Lee Cronin’s The Mummy hits digital platforms on May 19, 2026, with 4K UHD, Blu-ray, and DVD to follow July 14.
• The film stars Jack Reynor, Laia Costa, May Calamawy, and Veronica Falcón and runs 134–136 minutes.
• Made for $22 million, it has grossed over $86 million worldwide despite a divisive 47% Rotten Tomatoes score.
• The home release includes deleted scenes, a director’s commentary, and behind-the-scenes featurettes.
• This New Line Cinema project is unrelated to Universal’s classic Mummy property or the upcoming Brendan Fraser sequel.

If you missed Lee Cronin’s The Mummy in theaters — or just want to revisit it from your couch — the wait is almost over. The horror reimagining from the Evil Dead Rise director is set to land on digital platforms on May 19, 2026, with a physical media release following on July 14.

Bloody Disgusting first broke the news, and it’s a welcome one for horror fans who’ve been eager to get the film at home. Starting May 19, The Mummy will be available to rent or buy on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Fandango at Home, and other participating digital platforms. The July 14 physical release will cover 4K UHD, Blu-ray, and DVD.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=WnsLG8m9q0M%3Ffeature%3Doembed

What You Get With the Home Release

The digital and physical editions come loaded with bonus content. There’s a behind-the-scenes featurette — “The Making of Lee Cronin’s The Mummy” — in which Cronin walks through his vision for the film’s claustrophobic atmosphere. A separate featurette digs into the film’s wild practical effects work, including the intense prosthetics used to transform actress Natalie Grace into a demon-possessed vessel. A third piece explores the Egyptian mythology and demonic rituals at the story’s core. Rounding it out: deleted scenes and a full commentary track from Cronin himself.

For a film this tactile and visually driven — blood, bugs, and practical horror effects front and center — that behind-the-scenes access should be genuinely compelling viewing.

The Movie, the Money, and the Mixed Reviews

Cronin’s film tells the story of a journalist’s daughter who vanishes into the Egyptian desert and reappears eight years later — only the family quickly realizes the girl who came back is not the same child who disappeared. She’s been possessed by something ancient and malevolent, and what should be a joyful reunion becomes, as the synopsis puts it, “a living nightmare.”

The cast includes Jack Reynor (Midsommar), Laia Costa (Victoria), May Calamawy (Moon Knight), Veronica Falcón (Queen of the South), Hayat Kamille (Vikings: Valhalla), May Elghety (Clash), and Natalie Grace. James Wan and Jason Blum produced, with Cronin also serving as executive producer through his Doppelgängers banner.

Made on a $22 million budget, the film has pulled in over $86 million worldwide — a solid return by any measure. But critics weren’t as enthusiastic. It currently sits at 47% on Rotten Tomatoes, with reviewers pointing to an inconsistent story and a slightly bloated runtime (clocking in at over two hours, it’s one of the longest mummy movies ever made). Audiences, though, have been kinder — the Popcornmeter sits at 74% from over 1,000 user ratings, suggesting the film has found its crowd even if it didn’t fully win over the press.

It’s worth putting that in context: this is part of a broader wave of Blumhouse and Atomic Monster reimaginings of classic horror monsters. Leigh Whannell’s The Invisible Man in 2020 set the template and nailed it. His follow-up, Wolf Man in 2025, stumbled. Cronin’s Mummy sits somewhere in the middle — profitable, visually committed, but narratively uneven by most accounts.

No Connection to Universal’s Mummy Universe

One thing worth clarifying for fans: because this film is set up at New Line Cinema, it has absolutely nothing to do with Universal’s classic Mummy property. These are two entirely separate mummy worlds. Universal currently has three Mummy projects in various stages of development, including a prequel being written by Wes Tooke and — perhaps most excitingly for longtime fans — a fourth installment in the Brendan Fraser series, with Fraser and Rachel Weisz confirmed to return and Radio Silence (Scream) attached to direct from a script by David Coggeshall.

As for where Cronin’s film ends up on streaming, given that Warner Bros. distributed it, an HBO Max landing seems like the logical next step after the digital window closes — though no streaming date has been announced yet.

For now, May 19 is the date to mark. Deleted scenes, director’s commentary, and all the ancient demon horror you can handle — right from your living room.

The post Lee Cronin’s The Mummy Hits Digital May 19 appeared first on Cream.