UTA Agent’s $15M Bet Beat the Buyer’s Doubt

Jordan Lonner’s – At a Toronto International Film Festival premiere, UTA literary agent Jordan Lonner pitched a buyer on Curry Barker’s “Obsession” at $20 million—only to watch the buyer predict it would cost under $10 million. After Focus Features bought the film for $15 milli

Friday night at the Toronto International Film Festival, the premiere crowd was there for Curry Barker’s “Obsession.” Jordan Lonner—Barker’s agent at UTA—was walking into the moment when a major studio buyer stopped him with a blunt question: “What’s this going to run me to go buy it?”

Lonner answered fast: “Twenty million dollars.” Then came the laugh and the pushback. The buyer told him it would go “way under $10 [million],” and Lonner said he could only think: “Yeah, right, wait and see what happens.”

The number that mattered landed in the middle of the argument. “Obsession” sold to Focus Features for $15 million. And Lonner has had plenty of time to let that moment settle—because the film has become the indie box office story of the year, earning $234 million worldwide to date.

Lonner says the first clue didn’t come from a red-carpet pitch, but from a laptop. He’s represented Barker for the last two years. back when he was watching an early cut of “Obsession” on Barker’s brother’s laptop. Before he had any industry momentum to rely on. he’d come across Barker’s short film “Milk & Serial. ” and found himself asking how traditional Hollywood missed him—or “How did it not get picked up?”.

He kept watching. Lonner describes the breakthrough as the film’s craft, not its platform. “We were just watching [an early cut of ‘Obsession’]. the most basic version. but the movie’s ending. and we’re looking at each other and saying. ‘This guy’s got it. This thing is going to be a monster,’” he said. “It felt like a commercial movie. it had all the right kind of beats. the way that I think he’s deliberate in his timing. deliberate in his storytelling. I think it was very. very apparent that this was not only a good movie. but a movie that was going to work.”.

To Lonner, the appeal wasn’t that Barker was a YouTuber or speaking directly to a Gen-Z audience. He believes what really sets Barker apart is how entrepreneurial he is—especially how he distributes a film on his own and builds the audience around it in a digital age where attention is harder to hold.

“The thing that Curry always has been able to do is reach his audience,” Lonner said. “He knows who they are. He knows what stories to tell. He knows, quite frankly, their attention span. I don’t mean that in they only want to watch small videos. because when you watch ‘Obsession. ’ even though it’s a slow burn and there are very specific beats. those beats happen deliberately. He knows how to keep an audience intrigued.”.

As word spreads and more people clamor to work with Barker, the industry is suddenly moving at his pace. Lonner says Barker can now get green lights or theatrical deals on whatever he wants. But he also insists the change is more about access than control.

“If Curry wants to go and write a rock album. we can go figure out how to get him to do that. ” Lonner said. “It’s more so. how do you get. especially [from] a creator like him. the ability to touch where he started from in the creator’s business and branded content and also reach all of the different access points of traditional Hollywood. and then he gets to go create it on his own and figure out exactly what he wants to do.”.

Lonner’s own job runs on the hunt for that next creator who can do what Barker does. Talent discovery, he says, hasn’t changed just because the internet has become part of the pipeline.

“Agents like himself” in his world still look for what comes before the breakthrough. But he describes a different kind of entry point now: instead of waiting for creators to arrive through music videos. commercial work. or film festival discovery. he’s meeting people who are making films at home in places like Buffalo or Virginia.

Lonner also represents Dylan Clark. the director of the upcoming “Blair Witch” reboot for Lionsgate. as well as Damien McCarthy. the director of Neon’s “Hokum.” Another client. Sam Evenson. is a director with a VFX background. He also has a viral horror short film called “Mora. ” which Neon is now adapting into a feature. along with an adaptation of another of his shorts called “Ignore It” that Temple Hill is producing. Nic Curcio is a podcaster who is budding into film after winning a competition at Fantastic Fest.

Most of these filmmakers. Lonner says. are under 30 and have been grinding with small budgets or posting work to YouTube. Instagram. and TikTok. In his view. they share the independent. entrepreneurial spirit that he saw in Barker—no secret spell. just an instinct for building an audience and sticking with the work.

“I’ve worked at UTA for 14 years and always had to be scrappy. That’s how you find clients. I love building filmmakers from the ground up,” Lonner said. “It’s really easy when you can go sign somebody at the highest level and just keep them going. To me, it’s about how do you find people at the source and grow them?. I like to think I’m good at this. and I’ve learned how to do it. but it’s more so having to be scrappy and find people before they break. and you can just do that in different ways.”.

MISRYOUM Curry Barker Obsession Jordan Lonner UTA Focus Features Toronto International Film Festival Blair Witch reboot Dylan Clark Hokum Neon Damien McCarthy Mora Ignore It Temple Hill VFX director Sam Evenson Fantastic Fest Nic Curcio