What Movies Being Released This Year Could Be The Next ‘Obsession’ And Make Insane Amounts Of Money?

Let us be clear: there will not be another Obsession this year. In all likelihood, there may not be another Obsession in the next five years — that’s how remarkable a story its been.

Produced for just $750,000 and directed by YouTuber-turned-filmmaker Curry Barker, Obsession was acquired at TIFF for $15 million and has grossed over $230 million worldwide and counting since hitting theaters on May 15, while also setting all sorts of records along the way.

Obsession had the biggest second-weekend increase for a film playing in more than 2,500 theaters outside of the Christmas season. In its third weekend, the film made $27.4 million, becoming the first wide release outside of the Christmas season since Steven Spielberg’s 1982 classic E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial to increase its earnings for three consecutive weekends.

It now ranks as Focus Features’ highest-grossing film of all time, both domestically and globally, and is the top-grossing festival acquisition title of all time. It made more money on its 25th day of release than Avengers: Endgame did on its 25th.

Obsession is, by virtually any metric, one of the most unlikely box office stories in modern Hollywood history. Capstone, the company that financed the film is projected to earn about $50 million on the project, which would represent a +6,567% ROI (return on investment)

With the back half of 2026 still ahead of us, we identified the films most likely to pull off the same trick — although certainly not to the same extent given Obsession‘s unique rarity — and make an extraordinary amount of money relative to its budget.

That latter part — relative to its budget — is the key factor here. Avengers: Doomsday will probably clear a billion dollars at the box office. But it has a reported budget of $400 million. Those are expensive gambles, where the decisions that are top of mind have to do with business, and not creativity. They aren’t diamond-in-the-rough unicorns

Thus, there are rules in an effort to not make this list entirely chalk selections, but only two of them: no films with a budget over $50 million and no films that are sequels in established IP franchises, meaning you won’t see the likes of Doomsday, The Odyssey, Toy Story 5, Supergirl, Spider-Man: Brand New Day, and Dune: Part Three appearing on this list.

Identifying the remaining 2026 movies that could be the next Obsession and make an insane amount of money relative to its budget

Crawlers

Produced by the same team behind the John Wick franchise and starring Revenge actress Matilda Lutz, Crawlers is the most fundamentally similar to Obsession: an assuming, cheaply made horror film with a unique premise that has the potential to pop.

Crawlers, releasing on October 2, follows Serena (Lutz), the overworked manager of the Paradiso Palms apartment complex,  who contends with “a catastrophic infestation of venomous spiders spreading rapidly through the building,” according to Deadline.

Trying to find the true next Obsession, especially with the constraints of hitting theaters in the next six months, is virtually impossible. But Crawlers has the most similar DNA.

Jackass: Best and Last

Remember how we said our rules preclude entries in established IP? We’re making an exception for Jackass: Best and Last for a few reasons, the most karmically just being that they, themselves, have been rule-breakers for over 25 years now — so it’s in the spirit of all the laughs they’ve given us over the years to do the same for them now.

Economically, though, Jackass: Best and Last may also have the biggest explosion potential on this list. 2022’s Jackass Forever was made for just $10 million and made $80 million at the box office when it was released in February 2022, when the country — and therefore movie theaters — was still reeling from the pandemic.

Assuming that Jackass: Best and Last was produced on a similar budget, it’s feasible that it returns 10x its cost and makes over $100M at the box office, especially since it’ll be fueled by both the nostalgia and end-of-an-era factor.

One Night Only

While you may not be familiar with director Will Gluck, you’ve certainly heard of his movies. His 2010 film Easy A is considered one of the best rom-coms of its generation, and the Sydney Sweeney-starring 2023 film Anyone but You injected new life into the genre after grossing over $220 million at the global box office. Although the budget for One Night Only has not yet been reported on, every rom-com Gluck has ever directed has cost $35 million (Friends with Benefits) or less.

His latest film One Night Only, hitting theaters on August 7, boasts a high-concept — it tells the story of two strangers trying to find love on the one night a year when pre-marital intercourse is legal, essentially The Purge but for sex — and an intriguing cast, with Oscar nominee Monica Barbaro and Callum Turner playing the leads.

There is also a particular global interest in Turner right now as he recently got married to international pop star Dua Lipa and is reportedly in the running to be cast as the next James Bond.

It also faces virtually no direct competition on its release weekend, as the other movies going wide that weekend are Super Troopers 3, Ice Cream Man, and Fall 2: Deadpoint (more on that in a bit).

Fall 2: Deadpoint

Yes, with the number two literally in the title, Fall 2: Deadpoint is certainly a sequel. But it’d be both disingenuous and inaccurate to call it an established franchise. The original Fall is the epitome of a “came out of nowhere” film — a survival thriller about two women stranded atop a 2,000-foot abandoned radio tower — as it made made $21 million at the box office in 2022 (against a $3 million budget) before becoming a streaming hit on Netflix, reaching #2 globally back in February 2026.

Fall 2: Deadpoint — set atop a 3,000-foot plank walk on Mount Kwan in Thailand — is set to hit theaters on September 2 and could benefit from a post-release Netflix audience that’s increased awareness of and excitement for the franchise,  and a lean budget, which is reportedly in the neighborhood of $3 to $5 million.

Coincidentally enough, one of its producers, James Harris and Tea Shop Productions, also produced Obsession.

Verity

There have been three movies based on Colleen Hoover books to be released in recent years, with the most famous (or rather, infamous) being the Blake Lively-starring It Ends with Us. Now forgotten due to all of the controversy and lawsuits that followed, It Ends with Us was a massive hit at the box office, grossing over $350 million against a $25 million budget.

The other two Hoover books translated to the big screen have been more middling, though, with 2025’s Regretting You being panned by critics en route to a $90 million haul ($30M budget), and Reminders of Him making $89 million ($25M budget) earlier this year.

Verity — hitting theaters in October — has the potential to be on the It Ends with Us end of the financial spectrum, though, due to its star power, which is the most a Hoover adaptation has ever boasted, as Dakota Johnson, Anne Hathaway, and Josh Hartnett star in the film. It also features a potentially viral engine as Johnson and Hathaway will be sharing a some steam kiss in the movie.

Clayface

The upcoming Clayface film is attempting something never previously done in the comic book movie genre, and that’s being a straight-up horror movie (and apparently body horror, at that). Horror has proven itself to be one of the highest-return genres in Hollywood, which is a factor that should only be aided by its relation to Batman — who does not look set to appear in the film.

Reportedly made for about $40 million — a shockingly low total for the comic book genre — Clayface has the potential to cross over $200 million at the box office if the reviews and word-of-mouth reactions are strong.