Box Office: ‘Obsession’ Makes $2.6M In Previews

Focus Features/Blumhouse’s $15M+ pick-up of Curry Barker’s romantic horror movie, Obsession, has grossed $2.6M in previews between Thursday night and Wednesday shows.
Now get this, that number is higher than the previews for Paramount’s Smile, which were $2M, but that movie opened to $22.6M. It remains to be seen whether Obsession plays to that level. The pic’s comps are indie horror movies like A24’s Heretic and Talk to Me and Obsession has already beat those pics’ Friday previews which were $1.2M apiece. Heretic opened to $10.8M, and Talk to Me to $10.4M.
Heading into this weekend, literally as of yesterday, it was expected to be a faceoff between the fourth weekend of Lionsgate’s Michael and the third weekend of Devil Wears Prada 2 with about $20M+ each. We’ll see if Obsession upsets. As we told you yesterday, the Barker film about a toxic relationship is winning critics and audiences over at 95% each on Rotten Tomatoes.
YouTube filmmaker turned big screen filmmaker Barker’s Obsession is booked at 2,542 locations, which includes 435 PLF screens.
Amazon isn’t reporting grosses to its drama Is God Is, nor is Black Bear with its Guy Ritchie movie In the Grey. Both are respectively expected to open to around $3M and $4M+.
Here’s how the week went own at the B.O.:
1.) Devil Wears Prada 2 (Dis) 4,200 theaters, Wk $55.9M (-45%), Total $157.7M/Wk 2
2.) Michael (LG) 3,550 theaters, Wk $52.6M (-29%), Total $256.6M/Wk 3
Note that Michael beat Devil Wears Prada in weekdays on Monday, Wednesday and yesterday. Tuesday was a close call with both grossing $4.7M each.
3.) Mortal Kombat II (NL) 3,503 theaters, Wk $48.8M/Wk 1
4.) The Sheep Detectives (AMZ) 3,457 theaters, Wk $20.3M/Wk 1
5.) Project Hail Mary (AMZ) 2,417 theaters, Wk $9.2M (-23%), Total $330.95M/Wk 8
Let the record show that Project Hail Mary sans any Oscar nominations (yet) saw its domestic cume rocket past Oppenheimer‘s final total ($330M) this past week.




