We’re now past the halfway point of 2026, and as with every year, there have been some major box office surprises. The year opened with a few sci-fi b
We’re now past the halfway point of 2026, and as with every year, there have been some major box office surprises. The year opened with a few sci-fi bombs in Mercy (starring Rebecca Ferguson) and Greenland 2: Migration (starring Gerard Butler), which collectively lost millions for both Amazon and Warner Bros. The first gigantic sci-fi box office smash hit of the year didn’t come until the premiere of Project Hail Mary (starring Ryan Gosling), which grossed over $600 million at the box office before also becoming a streaming success on MGM+. It’s also been a wildly successful year for low-budget horror movies, including Backrooms, which hails from 21-year-old director Kane Parsons. After earning $330 million against a $10 million budget to become the most successful A24 film ever, the studio is putting Backrooms back in theaters this weekend with 15 minutes of never-before-seen footage.
However, as wildly successful as Backrooms has been, it doesn’t even come close to the profitability of the biggest horror sensation of 2026, Obsession. Written and directed by up-and-coming prodigy Curry Barker, Obsession was produced on a shoe-string budget reported to be around $750,000, and the film turned out to be profitable in less than one day. After releasing in theaters on May 15, Obsession has racked up over $370 million in total box office earnings, meaning the film has grossed nearly 500x its budget — this is enough to not only be the most profitable movie of the year, but one of the most profitable films ever made. After its tremendous box office success, Obsession is ready to enter a different stage of its life cycle, where the film is now available to stream at home via VOD platforms such as Prime Video and Apple TV.
Collider Exclusive · Horror Survival Quiz
Which Horror Villain Do You Have the Best Chance of Surviving?
Jason Voorhees · Michael Myers · Freddy Krueger · Pennywise · Chucky
Five killers. Five completely different ways to die — if you’re not astute enough, rapid enough, or self-aware enough to avoid it. Only one of them is the villain your particular set of instincts gives you a fighting chance against. Eight questions will figure out which one.
Jason
Michael
Freddy
Pennywise
Chucky
TEST YOUR SURVIVAL →
01
Something feels wrong. You can’t explain it — you just know. What do you do?
First instincts are the difference between the survivor and the first act casualty.
ALeave immediately. I don’t need to understand a threat to respect it.
BStay silent and observe. If I can see it, I can understand it. If I can understand it, I can avoid it.
CStay awake. Whatever this is, I am not going to sleep until I feel protected again.
DConfront it directly. Fear grows in the shadowy — I’d rather know what I’m dealing with.
ECheck everything, trust nothing. The threat might be closer than I think — and smaller.
NEXT QUESTION →
02
Where are you most likely to find yourself when things go wrong?
Setting is everything in horror. Where you are determines which rules apply.
ASomewhere remote — a cabin, a campsite, off the grid and away from people.
BA silent suburban neighbourhood where nothing ever happens. Except tonight.
CIn my own head — the most threatening place of all, depending on what’s already in there.
DWherever children are — because something about this place attracts the worst things.
ESomewhere ordinary — a house, a toy store, a place where the last thing you’d expect is a threat.
NEXT QUESTION →
03
What is your most reliable survival asset?
Every survivor has a quality the villain didn’t account for. What’s yours?
APhysical fitness — I can run, I can swim, I can outlast something that relies on brute persistence.
BSpatial awareness — I always know the exits, the hiding spots, the fastest route out.
CPsychological resilience — I’ve faced my worst fears before. They don’t have the same power over me.
DEmotional steadiness — I don’t panic. Panic is what gets you caught.
EScepticism — I don’t underestimate threats because of how they look. Size is irrelevant.
NEXT QUESTION →
04
What kind of fear is hardest for you to fight through?
Knowing your weakness is the first step to not dying because of it.
AThe unstoppable — something that will not stop, cannot be reasoned with, and is always getting closer.
BThe imperceptible — a threat I can feel but can’t locate, watching from somewhere I can’t see.
CThe psychological — something that uses my own mind and memories against me.
DThe unknowable — something historic, shapeless, that feeds on the fear itself.
EThe mundane — a threat so ordinary-looking that no one will believe me until it’s too behind schedule.
NEXT QUESTION →
05
You’re with a group when things start going wrong. What’s your role?
Horror movies are brutally clear about who survives group situations and who doesn’t.
AThe one who says “we need to leave” first — and means it, even when no one listens.
BThe one who stays silent, watches the others, and figures out the pattern before anyone else does.
CThe one who holds the group together when panic sets in — because someone has to.
DThe one who asks the questions nobody wants to ask — because ignoring them gets people killed.
EThe one who takes the threat seriously when everyone else is laughing it off.
NEXT QUESTION →
06
What’s the horror movie mistake you’re most likely to make?
Honest self-assessment is a survival skill. Denial is not.
AGoing back for someone — I know I shouldn’t, but I can’t leave them behind.
BAssuming I’m protected once I’ve found a hiding spot. That’s when it finds me.
CFalling asleep when I absolutely cannot afford to. Exhaustion is its own enemy.
DLetting my curiosity override my instincts — I always need to understand what I’m dealing with.
EDismissing the threat because of how it looks. That’s exactly what it wants.
NEXT QUESTION →
07
What’s your best weapon against something that can’t be stopped by conventional means?
Every horror villain has a weakness. The survivors are always the ones who find it.
AThe environment itself — I apply the terrain, the water, the geography against it.
BPatience — I wait, I watch, and I strike at the one moment it doesn’t expect.
CLucidity — if I can stay in control of my own mind, it loses its primary weapon.
DCourage — facing it directly, refusing to run, taking away the fear it feeds on.
EImprovisation — I apply whatever’s at hand, however unconventional. Creativity over brute force.
NEXT QUESTION →
08
It’s the final scene. You’re the last one standing. How did you make it?
The final survivor always has a reason. What’s yours?
AI kept moving. I never stopped, never hid for too long, never let it corner me.
BI figured out the pattern before anyone else did — and I used it against the thing following it.
CI stayed awake, stayed lucid, and refused to give it the one thing it needed most.
DI stopped being afraid of it. And the moment I did, everything changed.
EI took it seriously from the start — and I never once made the mistake of underestimating it.
REVEAL MY VILLAIN →
Your Survival Odds Have Been Calculated
Your Best Chance Is Against…
Your instincts, your strengths, and your particular way of thinking under pressure point to one villain you actually have a fighting chance against. Everyone else — good luck.
Jason Voorhees
Jason is relentless, but he is also predictable — and that is the gap you would exploit.
- He moves in straight lines toward his target. He doesn’t strategise, doesn’t adapt, doesn’t outsmart. He simply pursues.
- Your ability to keep moving, apply the environment, and resist the panic that freezes most victims gives you a genuine edge.
- The Crystal Lake survivors were always the ones who stopped running in circles and started thinking about terrain, water, and distance.
- You think like that. Which means Jason, for all his indestructibility, would face someone who simply refused to be where he expected.
Michael Myers
Michael watches before he moves. He is patient, methodical, and almost impossible to detect — until it’s too behind schedule for anyone who isn’t paying close enough attention.
- But you are paying attention. You notice the shape in the window, the car parked slightly wrong, the silence where there should be sound.
- Michael’s power lies in the invisibility of ordinary suburbia — the fact that nothing ever looks wrong until it already is.
- Your spatial awareness and instinct to map every room, every exit, and every shadow before you need them is precisely the quality Laurie Strode had.
- You are not a victim waiting to happen. You are someone who already suspects something is wrong — and acts on it.
Freddy Krueger
Freddy wins by getting inside your head — using your own fears, your own memories, your own subconscious as weapons against you. That strategy requires a target who can be destabilised.
- You are harder to destabilise than most. You’ve faced uncomfortable truths about yourself and you haven’t looked away.
- The survivors on Elm Street were always the ones who understood what was happening and chose to face it rather than flee from it.
- Freddy’s greatest weakness is that his power evaporates in the presence of someone who refuses to give him the fear he feeds on.
- Your psychological resilience — the ability to stay grounded when reality itself becomes unreliable — is exactly the quality that keeps you alive here.
Pennywise
Pennywise is historic, shapeshifting, and feeds on terror — but it has one critical vulnerability: it cannot function against someone who genuinely stops being afraid of it.
- The Losers Club didn’t survive because they were braver than everyone else. They survived because they faced their fears together, and faced them honestly.
- You ask the questions others avoid. You look directly at what frightens you rather than turning away.
- That directness — the refusal to let fear fester in the shadowy — is Pennywise’s worst nightmare.
- It chose the wrong target when it chose you. You are exactly the kind of person whose fear tastes like nothing at all.
Chucky
Chucky’s greatest advantage is that nobody takes him seriously until it’s already too behind schedule. He exploits the gap between how something looks and what it actually is.
- You don’t have that gap. You take threats seriously regardless of how they present — and you never make the mistake of underestimating something because of its size or appearance.
- Chucky relies on surprise, on the delay between recognition and response. You close that delay faster than almost anyone.
- Your instinct to treat every unfamiliar thing with appropriate scepticism — rather than dismissing it because it seems absurd — is the exact quality that keeps you breathing.
- Against Chucky, not laughing is already winning. You are very good at not laughing.
↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ
What Is ‘Obsession’ About?
Obsession follows a guy who breaks a mysterious “One Wish Willow” to win his crush’s heart. While he does ultimately get what he asks for, he realizes that this newfound desire comes at a shadowy and sinister price. The horror film stars breakouts Inde Navarette, Michael Johnston, Cooper Tomlinson, and Megan Lawless, who are all certain to get more offers going forward. Obsession holds equally sturdy scores of 94% from critics and audiences on Rotten Tomatoes, making it one of the highest-rated films of 2026. Disclosure Day director Steven Spielberg has also publicly shared his love for Obsession, further driving it home as one of the biggest movies of the year. His full quote about the film reads as follows: “I’m so happy for them. I think it’s so fantastic, and I think it’s great that they had basically, very little money. Especially Obsession, had under $1 million, and the other film [Backrooms], had maybe nine or 10, and they’re both doing so well, and I just applaud them. I haven’t seen Backrooms, I am going to see it when all this is over. But, I have seen Obsession, and I loved it.“
Check out Obsession at home on VOD platforms and stay tuned to Collider for more updates and coverage of all the biggest movies of the year.
Release Date
May 15, 2026
Runtime
108 minutes
Director
Curry Barker
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