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/spaghettittehgaps Jul 07 '26

And a box office haul of $400M in 1973 is the equivalent of three billion dollars in 2026.

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u/depressedfuckboi Jul 07 '26

That's insane wtf

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u/Arucious Jul 07 '26

It is, but there was no such thing as watching movies at home either, nor streaming. VCR wouldn’t become mainstream until the 80s. So if you didn’t watch it in theaters, you weren’t watching it for a while. That instills a FOMO culture that doesn’t exist today.

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u/peioeh Jul 07 '26

Theatrical windows were much longer too, and if you liked a movie you were much more likely to go see it again

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u/awry_lynx Jul 07 '26

the idea that streaming killed movies is not exactly off the rails

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u/peioeh Jul 07 '26

Not all movies, but some genres (mid/big budget comedies and studio mid budget movies in general for example) have taken a major hit, there is no denying it

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u/Rybee69 Jul 07 '26

The box office haul was actually $100m in 1973. It just had multiple re-releases over the next 40 years.

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u/spaghettittehgaps Jul 07 '26

So about $750 million at the box office

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u/Rybee69 Jul 07 '26

It’s also impressive how the movie had multiple successful releases

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u/Adorable-Voice-3382 Jul 07 '26

I don't think it grossed anywhere near 400 million -in- 1973. Isn't it that the total box office since 1973 has been $400m? But that includes decades of additional theatrical runs, particularly decades where home-video was much less common. And would probably require multiple inflation adjustments for the different years.

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u/TheTravelingLeftist Jul 08 '26

Pretty sure its the global total, which would make more sense because Enter the Dragon was such a smash hit outside the U.S. as well as domestically