creator-helmed hits – A creator-written, creator-directed horror film called “Obsession” opened with $17.2 million at the box office, reinforcing a fast-growing trend: filmmakers built on YouTube and TikTok are increasingly dominating theaters—alongside major industry deals and a w
When Curry Barker and Cooper Tomlinson talk about making movies, they don’t start with a studio pitch. They start with sketches. For years. the duo turned surrealist web comedy into training—until “Obsession. ” their creator-helmed horror feature. landed in theaters and brought a $17.2 million opening weekend.
Barker wrote, directed, and edited “Obsession,” and it has since emerged as a critically strong hit released by Focus Features. The film carries a 95% Rotten Tomatoes score and a 94% audience score. It’s also drawing the kind of audience that theaters covet: the breakdown shows 59% male and 75% of viewers are in the 18-to-35 range.
Barker and Tomlinson have collaborated for years. beginning with their surrealist webseries “Roommates.” Their channel—listed as that’s a bad idea—has built major reach. with over 1.1 million YouTube subscribers and 1.3 million TikTok followers. The sketches that appear on the channel were instrumental in establishing the duo’s twisted yet funny voice.
Last year, that voice was put through a different kind of test when the pair released the found-footage horror movie “Milk & Serial” on YouTube. That project was created with a budget of $800, and it pushed their filmmaking ability beyond the comfort zone of sketches.
“Those kinds of exercises have really helped me write low-budget,” Barker said, adding, “Now I almost want to keep the voice of some of those choices.”
The feature version of that confidence came when producer James Harris approached Barker about making a feature film. Barker made “Obsession” for less than $1 million. From there, it moved from creator space to mainstream screens.
And the momentum isn’t stopping at one title. Focus Features has already acquired Barker’s follow-up feature “Anything but Ghosts,” which he’s now editing. A24 has also tapped him to reboot the “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” franchise.
If “Obsession” is one headline moment, other creator-driven films show the same direction. Mark Fischbach, known as Markiplier (with 38.6 million YouTube subscribers), grossed $50 million with “Iron Lung” against its $3 million budget. Fischbach will release his movie on YouTube on May 31.
Creator Camp and Baron Ryan’s “Two Sleepy People” grossed over $425,000—four times its budget—using a guerrilla marketing campaign that didn’t involve any major production companies.
A24 and Kane Parsons’ “Backrooms” is expected to hit between $20 million to 30 million for its opening weekend.
There’s even more deal momentum arriving from festival territory. Jordan Firstman, who has 816,000 Instagram followers, directed “Club Kid,” which scored a rights deal reportedly worth $17 million after premiering at Cannes. That was just last week.
The throughline across these numbers is hard to miss: creator-helmed projects aren’t only finding audiences online anymore—they’re translating that attention into theatrical and monetizable performance. The pipeline looks less like a hope and more like a proven route.
In another corner of the creator economy. Byron Allen is also looking at how creator money can be structured for the next phase of online media. Allen—the Weather Channel owner who recently purchased the majority stake in Buzzfeed in a deal worth $120 million—has big plans for his new investment. including a revenue sharing option for creators similar to YouTube’s model. He also wants to bring BuzzFeed and Huffington Post into people’s living rooms through what Allen is describing as a free “super app.”.
Allen’s interest lands on familiar ground: “Challenge Accepted” host Michelle Khare. “Abbott Elementary” creator Quinta Brunson. and the Try Guys all worked for Buzzfeed. On the media side. most members of the independent media company Garbage Day. which is on track to make $1 million in revenue this year. also started there.
The creator economy, in other words, is expanding on multiple fronts at once—on screens, on platforms, and now in the business frameworks that decide how creators get paid.
Curry Barker Cooper Tomlinson Obsession Focus Features Texas Chainsaw Massacre Markiplier Iron Lung Backrooms Club Kid creator economy YouTube creators TikTok creators Rotten Tomatoes box office opening weekend
So does this mean horror movies are just TikTok now lol
I don’t get how it made 17 million if it’s literally “creator-helmed.” Like was it just people from their followers going to theaters? Either way good for them I guess, but Focus Features always wins somehow.
Wait I thought Rotten Tomatoes 95% means nobody hated it, but audience 94%?? That’s basically the same number, so either the movie is perfect or RT is rigged? Also “less than $1 million” budget like how did they even do effects that fast.
The title makes it sound like some romance thing but it’s horror? Classic. Also 59% male and 18 to 35 like yeah no surprise, horror is for young people on weekends. I saw the TikTok version of something similar and it was fake jumpscares, so I’m skeptical but I might watch just to confirm.