As “Obsession” nears $175 million worldwide, art director Sally Choi says she made just $300 per day—$6,741.36 after taxes—for “strenuous, cross-department” work on the $750,000 indie. She says the production’s volunteers were paid in gas and mileage, says she
When “Obsession” is getting closer to $175 million at the worldwide box office, Sally Choi says she’s still thinking about what she made while building it.
Thursday, the “Obsession” art director posted on Instagram after saying she’d “debated sharing” her complaint “for a long time.” She framed it as the kind of deal many below-the-line filmmakers accept—then live with when the payoff arrives far later than the grind.
Choi wrote that she’d been carrying the issue “for the past two years since the production of ‘Obsession. ’” and that she wanted to state what she described as the reality of her situation. The film. she said. was made for “$750K” and is projected to make “$250M.” In her breakdown. she said she earned “$300/day as Art Director. ” which “came out to $6741.36 after taxes.” She added: “No mileage.”.
She acknowledged she knew the indie production rate beforehand and agreed to it—while also admitting she was living paycheck to paycheck at the time. “This is the reality of most filmmakers, especially those who work below the line,” she wrote. “We become a line in the budget sheet to keep as low as possible.”.
In the same post, Choi pushed for others to speak up. “Maybe we can turn a tide in the film industry,” she wrote, inviting members of the production who might relate to her position to follow through.
She also described how other parts of the crew worked. Choi said some members of the “Obsession” team were volunteers who were paid in gas and mileage. She added that the work “wasn’t even paid on time. ” and that to help make a movie she characterized as a “$250M grossing film. ” “some of these amazing people had to come out of pocket to work on set.”.
Choi ended that section with regret. “I kick myself every single day for not flipping this production,” she wrote. She said she was “encouraged not to and I naively listened.”
Online reaction moved fast after her post picked up steam Friday, with commenters split between sympathy and sharp criticism. Film director Joseph Kahn emphasized the unstable economics of independent production on X. pointing to the “feast or famine” nature of the business and noting that workers may not get hired for weeks or months. requiring earnings to be saved and “amortized.” Kahn shared screenshots of Choi’s Instagram post.
Other commenters went after Choi directly. Actor and director Luke Barnett wrote that someone shouldn’t cut ties with the filmmakers after rejecting a rate. then complain once success arrives. adding: “Do NOT cut every connection you have to the filmmakers. put out tweets about how you wish you’d shut down their production. and complain about the rate you agreed to.” Barnett argued that the rate she discussed “isn’t even like $100 or some student film sketchiness.”.
Still. there was also a strong countercurrent: several users said wild success should trigger a reward system for the artists who made the film possible at low pay. One X user wrote. “I 100% believe that this studio/producers should give every person who worked on the obsession set a bonus since it’s made literally 250x its budget.”.
Choi’s post landed alongside key business details about the movie itself. “Obsession” was independently produced for $750,000, and Focus Features acquired the debut feature from horror jumpstart Barker for $15 million.
A representative for Barker did not immediately respond to MISRYOUM’s request for comment.
For Choi. the debate now isn’t about whether she should have earned more—it’s about what happens when a film’s momentum grows faster than the terms of the people who built it. She called for a “tide” shift. and her numbers—$300 a day. and “$6741.36 after taxes” after years of waiting—are at the center of the fight over what “success” should mean for the crew that earned it first.
Obsession Sally Choi art director Focus Features Curry Barker indie filmmaking film industry pay Instagram $300 per day