Netflix wanted Obsession before Focus Features ever entered the picture. Curry Barker, the director behind the year's biggest sleeper hit, just confirmed the streaming giant tried to claim the film long before its now-legendary festival sale. That single revelation reframes an origin story audiences thought they already understood in full. Barker recently sat for a candid, wide-ranging conversation that peeled back years of quiet studio maneuvering. What emerged was a portrait of a bidding scramble far messier than anyone previously realized.

While the finished film now dominates box office charts, the real story unfolded long before cameras rolled, inside boardrooms nobody saw.

Curry Barker confirmed that Netflix once wanted Obsession released straight to streaming, skipping theaters altogether. That offer arrived years before Focus Features entered the picture, back when the micro-budget project remained an unproven risk. Interest reportedly built fast once early buzz hinted at something unusual.

"I think Netflix was in the conversation at one point," Barker said on the Q with Tom Power podcast.

He then added, "They put in an offer to just put it straight on Netflix."

Additional context shared during the Q with Tom Power podcast filled in gaps left out of earlier reporting. Obsession premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival with a midnight screening that quickly became legendary within festival circles. Focus Features ultimately paid roughly fifteen million dollars, one of the largest acquisitions in the festival's history. Barker returned to Toronto this year for a special screening, reflecting on a single year that reshaped his entire career trajectory.

Curry Barker Stands His Ground for Who Gets 'Obsession's Profits, Despite Art Director Controversy

As that Toronto triumph faded into memory, an even bigger studio commitment was already quietly taking shape.

Universal has signed Curry Barker to write, direct, and produce an entirely original horror feature under an eight-figure agreement. The deal deepens his relationship with the studio, which previously backed Obsession and now oversees his sophomore feature, Anything But Ghosts. Plot details remain closely guarded, though the project reportedly began as a pitch delivered directly to studio executives. Multiple companies had offered more than ten million dollars before a single page of script existed.

That leverage traces directly back to Obsession's numbers, a film made for under one million dollars that has since crossed five hundred million worldwide. It surpassed the long-standing record held by The Blair Witch Project and now sits among the highest-grossing horror titles in North American history, alongside Get Out, Jaws, and It. Had that early Netflix offer succeeded, none of those theatrical milestones would exist. The most surprising blockbuster of the year almost never reached a single screen.

“I’m Not Rewriting the Script”: How Curry Barker’s $2 Million Rejection Turned ‘Obsession’ Into a Hit

What are your thoughts on Netflix almost claiming Obsession before Focus Features stepped in? Let us know in the comments.