Is indie cinema seeing a comeback?
Nadoo Abaagu, Contributor
The 2025 horror film Obsession was shot for less than a million dollars but recouped its budget over 500 times through domestic and international sales. However, Obsession is just one of many indie films that have done phenomenally at the box office in 2026.
From January to August, audiences saw Iron Lung, Obsession, Backrooms, Leviticus, and Hokum, to name a few. While some of these films were more successful than others, all were produced with exceptionally low budgets.
Each movie was produced for less than $10 million, with the lowest being Obsession at $750,000.
For a decade now, the worldwide box office has been dominated by major studios, established directors, and big-budget movies. For most major film studios, the average production budget starts at $65 million, with an additional $35 million for marketing and distribution.
In the 90s and 2000s, the box office was littered with mid-budget movies guaranteed to break even, but according to actor Matt Damon, those films are no longer considered profitable.
While Damon built his career on mid-budget movies, he says studios now need something more widely accessible.
“You’re looking for a home run that can play in all these different territories to all these different ages,” said Damon in an interview with The New York Times Magazine. “You want the most accessible thing you can make, in terms of language and culture. And what is that? A superhero movie.”
Superhero movies are large in scale and budget, but the risk comes with great reward. Blockbuster movies tend to make close to a billion dollars for studios.
In a 2019 BBC article on 2010s film, journalist Nicholas Barber defined the decade by its superhero movies, Disney remakes, and spectacular blockbusters. The enormous success of these movies throughout the 2010s has made big concepts and big budgets the profitable norm rather than the exception.
Then Obsession comes along.
According to director Curry Barker, in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Focus Features bought the movie for $15 million, and in a four-month run in theatres it made over half a billion dollars at the box office.
Iron Lung and Backrooms saw similar success. Although Iron Lung was self-financed and independently distributed, it got an international release and made $50 million worldwide. Backrooms, on the other hand, became studio A24’s highest-grossing release, making over $300 million at the box office.
The achievements of these movies come up against a studio filmmaking ethic committed to big budgets, franchises, and established intellectual property.
Obsession, Backrooms, and Iron Lung challenge everything Hollywood thinks audiences want.
The success of these movies also goes beyond profit. Obsession began its theatrical release in May with little fanfare or marketing, but gained traction through reviews and word of mouth.
“When it made $27 million, I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t know that was an option,” said Barker in his interview with The Hollywood Reporter. It became a word-of-mouth movie. I started going to the theatre to sneak in and watch the film too because I wanted to be part of this thing.”
2010s blockbusters have mostly appealed to general audiences, but Obsession, Backrooms, Iron Lung, and other Indie films have drawn younger audiences.
According to Variety, on Backrooms’ opening weekend, over 85% of its audience was under the age of 35. While Obsession, Iron Lung, and Leviticus attracted audiences between 18 and 24.
These small movies have managed to stand next to, or even surpass, heavy hitters like Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey or Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Gorgu in terms of profit and cultural relevance.
Despite a larger marketing campaign and a bigger theatre release, Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Gorgu fell behind both Obsession and Backrooms in terms of profit.
When asked what Gen-Z audiences want from their movies, Barker argued they are longing for original ideas and creative execution.
“People are still hungry for movies that are original without some big IP, as long as the story is good,” he said.
On the other hand, Iron Lung director Mark Fischbach and Backrooms director Kane Parsons—both established YouTubers—attributed a lot of their box office success to audience loyalty.
While big-budget movies continue to see major success at the box office, with Spider-Man: Brand New Day surpassing two billion worldwide in August, audiences clearly desire alternative media.
No matter what each of these directors owes their success to, audience turnout shows a desire for innovation and sincere experimentation.
Still, it’s hard to say what lessons Hollywood will take from this.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Obsession’s producer James Harris has been flooded with texts and well-wishes from independent and industry producers hoping to reproduce the film’s success.
Buzz around Obsession has focused on its intriguing concept, talented director, and unknown cast, but Harris says the movie was fundamentally a risk taken on a first-time director.
“To actually take the chance on the first movie is something that we feel there is a market for. We can work with financial partners to take that risk,” he said.
Tea Shop Productions believes in risk-taking and fostering fledgling filmmakers, but not all studios will be willing to take that kind of leap of faith.
A New Frontier?
Of 2026’s indie darlings, three films were helmed by YouTubers.
Fischbach and Parsons have had long-established careers on YouTube as Markiplier and Kane Pixels, respectively, while Obsession’s unique brand of horror-comedy was influenced by Barker’s 10-year career in YouTube sketch comedy.
Each of these directors is a product of the internet culture of the last two decades. Even their film education has been shaped by YouTube, as none of them has post-secondary training in filmmaking.
But surprisingly, not all of them define themselves so rigidly by the label of YouTuber. Barker sees his filmmaking journey as pretty ordinary.
“I feel my journey isn’t that much different from the greats we know and love like Spielberg — not to compare myself to those people, but they started by making short films,” he said to The Hollywood Reporter. “They made films over and over until finally someone gave them a chance.”
YouTube may be a new frontier for Hollywood, but Barker and his peers have a lot more in common with established filmmakers than meets the eye.
Like Quentin Tarantino, Stanley Kubrick, or even Christopher Nolan at the beginning of his career, Barker, Parsons, and Fischbach are not formally educated; they are underexposed and under-connected. They are the antithesis of mainstream norms, but seemingly also able to connect with audiences because of it.
Independent cinema has historically been a force in democratising the film industry by rejecting the mainstream’s standards, techniques, and monopolies.
It can also easily become absorbed by it. Rocking the boat, only to become the new normal.
Obsession, Backrooms, and Iron Lung might fall into that pattern, depending on what Hollywood learns from their success, but their unconventional directors show that audiences and the film industry are opening up to new talent and new ideas.
We should hope to see many more “Barkers,” “Parsons,” and “Fischbachs” wherever they decide to come from.
