Once the dust settles, three of the biggest winners at the 2026 box office will be Iron Lung, Backrooms, and Obsession. The horror genre has experienced a surge of new blood, and surprisingly, this year’s spotlight has shone on three internet creatives who broke out of digital media and into indie filmmaking — Markiplier, Kane Parsons, and Curry Barker. Each has made a sizeable stack of cash in their theatrical runs (Iron Lung with $51 million, Backrooms with $160 million, and Obsession at almost $300 million), which means the future looks bright for the creatives behind each one.
In Barker's case, Obsession has already opened up some big opportunities. His next movie, Anything but Ghosts (described as a buddy-comedy haunting story set in the same world as his recent hit), has already wrapped filming, and he’s slated to direct a remake of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre for A24. Beyond that, the world of genre film seems to be Barker’s oyster, and at some point, he’ll almost certainly return to the same wishing well that put him on the map.
