Indie films are leading the race at the cinema, on social media, and across every space where movies are discussed, and the numbers are starting to say the same thing louder.
Obsession Wins Industry Attention Following Box Office Success
Universal Pictures International, Blumhouse Productions, and Focus Features will undoubtedly look back at Q4 2025 as the point when they joined one of the most profitable singular film decisions for the following year.
Curry Barker’s film, Obsession, opened on May 15 to $17.2 million, finishing third behind Michael and The Devil Wears Prada 2, well above projections. It also earned more than its acquisition price of $15 million in its opening weekend alone.
Obsession received an A-minus CinemaScore, which is extremely rare for a horror film. In its second week frame, it landed at number two on the box office chart, making roughly 24 times its budget on that weekend alone. It raked in that much in competition with Disney’s The Mandalorian and Grogu, with a 39% growth over its opening.
Comscore’s Paul Dergarabedian, who has covered box office trends for over 30 years, described the second-weekend jump as “really unheard of,” calling it a sign of audiences fully embracing the film.
As of May 26, the film has grossed $90.2 million worldwide against a budget under $1 million, with 75% of its audience sitting between the ages of 18 and 34. Its promotion was aided by a marketing campaign that included cryptic billboards in Los Angeles and New York. It also includes a viral text campaign where over 70,000 people received custom voice notes recorded by lead actress Inde Navarrette.
The horror works precisely because it avoids the physical intrusion of supernatural forces, grounding its dread in a familiar environment. One of the ways it does this is by giving its female lead, played by Navarrette, moments of clarity within her induced obsession that make the horror feel earned.
I Love Boosters Wins Critics but Struggles to Pull Audiences Into Theaters
On the other side of this conversation is Boots Riley’s I Love Boosters. Rejected by Cannes, the film found a home at South by Southwest (SXSW) 2026, where it opened the festival.
On the other side of the conversation is Boots Riley’s I Love Boosters. Rejected by Cannes, the film found a home at South by Southwest (SXSW) 2026, where it opened the festival.
It currently holds a 92% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes, but its box office performance, determined by the audience, tells a different story. Starting with an opening weekend of $3.72 million, it has a current total of $5.2 million against a $20 million budget, with daily numbers dropping since release.
The film itself is a surrealist heist-comedy following three Black women boosters, led by Keke Palmer as Corvette, who set their sights on Christie Smith, a tyrannical fashion mogul played by Demi Moore.
Costume designer Shirley Kurata and cinematographer Natasha Braier give the film a visually loud and deliberately overwhelming look.
Riley, unlike Cannes and the box office, seems to find a home everywhere he looks and puts his hands in every basket. He folds in sci-fi, supernatural horror, political satire, and crime thriller across a world set in the Bay Area.
It is a film that does not sit still long enough to be easily categorised, and Riley, true to the form of his film, has not sat still long enough to let anyone miss it.
Following I Love Booster’s premiere at SXSW, Riley took the film to college campuses across the country, holding screenings himself to build word of mouth ahead of the wide release.
Once the film opened, he turned every social media account he owns, including his X account, into a direct line of persuasion. Riley posted calls to action, retweeted audience reactions, personally looked up showtimes for followers, and scolded those who had not bought tickets yet.
He later announced that he had been forced into purchasing X Premium to keep promoting the film for the time being, at least. The film has been in theaters for only a week, and filmmakers are watching to see if audiences decide they love boosters too.
The Takeaway
The contrast between Obsession and I Love Boosters makes something clear: Audiences are increasingly the ones deciding what deserves a strong cinema viewing and what belongs on a streaming platform.
Overwhelming marketing, sharp social commentary, and visually striking filmmaking are no longer enough on their own. Obsession earned its run through a film that connected emotionally and kept people talking. On the other hand, I Love Boosters, despite its director giving everything to get people in the door, has not yet found that same grip.
Both films are indie in spirit and ambitious, but only one has proven it has the audience fully on its side.
