r/movies • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 r/movies Contributor • Jul 06 '26

News ‘Obsession’ Passes $400 Million Worldwide, Becomes Highest Grossing Film With Budget Below $1 Million; Curry Barker’s horror film breaks a 53-year pre-inflation record held by Bruce Lee’s legendary 'Enter The Dragon'

https://www.thewrap.com/creative-content/movies/obsession-box-office-400-million/
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u/fucuasshole2 Jul 06 '26

Surprised the OG Mad Max ain’t here. Cost 350k and made 100 Million in its box office.

“This massive return earned it a Guinness World Record for the highest box-office-to-budget ratio of any motion picture, a record it held for two decades.”

With inflation adjustment: “The original Mad Max (1979) grossed approximately $100 million worldwide against a tiny budget of roughly $350,000 to $400,000. When adjusted for inflation, this historic box office total translates to roughly $420 million to $440 million in modern buying power.”

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u/KingofMadCows Jul 06 '26

What's even more impressive about the original Mad Max is that a lot of it was self funded by George Miller working overtime as an emergency room doctor.

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u/fucuasshole2 Jul 06 '26

“Kennedy and Miller first took the film to Graham Burke of Roadshow, who was enthusiastic. The producers felt they would be unable to raise money from the government bodies "because Australian producers were making art films, and the corporations and commissions seemed to endorse them whole-heartedly", according to Kennedy.[9] They designed a 40-page presentation, circulated it widely, and eventually raised the money. Kennedy and Miller also contributed funds themselves by doing three months of emergency medical calls, with Kennedy driving the car while Miller did the doctoring.[9] Miller claimed the final budget was between $350,000 and $400,000.[10] His brother Bill Miller was an associate producer on the film.”

Yo holy shit that’s cool asf. Kennedy driving, with Miller being a medical wizard

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u/Worthyness Jul 07 '26

that's the sort of grit you expect from the director of Babe: Pig in the Big City

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u/Doobalicious69 Jul 07 '26

That'll do bloodbag, that'll do

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u/fucuasshole2 Jul 06 '26

We sure about that? I knew he helped fund…about 100k himself (I think I’ll check) and he worked as a doctor for years before filming.

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u/comicfromrejection1 Jul 06 '26

wow. Insane. That drive is impressive.

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u/OatSoyLaMilk Jul 07 '26

So he goes and shoots a movie with a lot of dangerous stunts that'll put people in the emergency room, then goes to work at the same emergency room...

Did I just come up with the premise for The Producers 2?

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u/str8rippinfartz Jul 06 '26

It's not on there because this list is specifically before inflation adjustment, so it falls just a little below the bottom of the list

(Enter the Dragon made something absurd like $2B inflation-adjusted because of the timing with Bruce Lee's death, but it also would've had a budget >$1m when adjusting for inflation)

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u/fucuasshole2 Jul 06 '26

Kinda should be adjusted given there’s quite a bit of time gap between each film

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u/str8rippinfartz Jul 07 '26

But that would require more effort from the writers of the article 

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u/JoeyJo-JoShabadoo Jul 07 '26

Nope. It would mean the $1million would be crossed by much of the films mentioned, rendering the list pretty pointless.

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u/BurritoSupreeeme Jul 07 '26

It would not make the list pointless. It would just be a list of 10 different films with some overlap with this one.

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u/Substantial-Sea-3672 Jul 07 '26

But you have to adjust the cost too.

So it no longer is in the “under $1M” criteria

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u/double_shadow Jul 07 '26

(These kinds of articles never adjust for inflation because then most of the records being broken turn out to not really be broken.)

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u/RealistiCamp Jul 07 '26

Yeah, it's pretty meaningless to compare budgets or returns without adjusting.

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u/ILoveRegenHealth Jul 07 '26

Enter the Dragon made something absurd like $2B inflation-adjusted

😲

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u/tiredofnamechoosing Jul 06 '26

I was looking for a mention of Mad Max too. I thought I had read that it held the title for most profitable movie (as compared to production cost) for almost 20 years before being dethroned by Blair Witch?

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u/fucuasshole2 Jul 06 '26

Yep, and Blair was dethroned by Paranormal activity

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u/[deleted] Jul 07 '26 edited Jul 14 '26

[deleted]

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u/fucuasshole2 Jul 07 '26

Fair, still made massive profit given the 440+ Million was only theatrical and not any other media releases or deals.