2026 has been quite the year at the box office, with behemoths such as Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey and Destin Daniel Cretton’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day setting records and ranking amongst the highest grossing films of all time. This, in part, has led many to dub 2026 a true return to form for commercial cinema in this post-pandemic world, with an anticipated domestic gross of $10 billion, though Avengers: Doomsday and Dune: Part 3 have yet to release in December, and their projections may be conservative for all we know.
What we do know, however, is that one of the biggest success stories of the year, from both a creative and commercial perspective, has been Curry Barker’s horror feature Obsession, the quintessential sleeper hit of 2026 with an estimated worldwide box office of $519 million, which not only makes it the fifth-highest grossing horror movie of all time, but also one of the most profitable movies ever made since it had a minuscule production budget of roughly $750,000.
As one can imagine, this made Barker the talk of Tinseltown, and one of the most sought after filmmakers in the world, with even the great Steven Spielberg praising the success of Obsession – and another low budget horror hit, Backrooms – while also acknowledging the impossibly low budget, which is another major reason why Barker is the apple of any studio’s eye.
Another prominent celebrity who has professed their admiration for Barker as a filmmaker is none other than Seth Rogen, who even wrote Barker’s entry in the TIME100 Next 2026 list. There, he heaped praised on the young filmmaker, recounting that when he first went to see Obsession, “The crowd was electric. And the movie overdelivered,” remarking that Barker “showed a level of cinematic intuition many directors will never have…. It was also technically impeccable, beautifully performed, expertly written.”
However, it was what Rogen said next in his brief piece that is of particular interest. For context, it was recently announced that Barker, and his creative partner Cooper Tomlinson (who played Bear’s best friend Ian in Obsession) have already made their next project, the horror comedy Anything but Ghosts, which they co-wrote and Barker directed, and Tomlinson intriguingly described it as being “like if Key and Peele walked into Hereditary.” Well, Rogen admitted that he has seen Anything but Ghosts and he could hardly contain his praise for Barker’s sophomore effort, saying “for those of you who, like me, are uncomfortable with this amount of talent in a person so young, I have bad news … it’s even better, and, to add insult to injury, he’s just as good an actor as he is a director.”
This is significant praise coming from Rogen, who is himself an Emmy-winning actor, producer, and director, with the most notable part being his singling out of Barker’s acting. His words are all the more profound when you consider that Anything but Ghosts also stars the immensely talented performers Aaron Paul and Bryce Dallas Howard, so Barker must truly be on his A-game to go toe-to-toe with them while also making an impression on one of Canada’s most prominent actors and filmmakers.
Suffice to say, such praise should not be taken lightly, and it will undoubtedly only serve to stoke the fervor audiences clearly have for Curry Barker, who is looking to be, dare I say, the next Jordan Peele, but we will have to wait until the May 7th, 2027, release of Anything but Ghosts to see if this is truly the case.