Obsession Cost Under $1 Million and Pulled In $522 Million; Its Breakout Star Says Gen Z Doesn't Want to Feel Sold
Inde Navarrette, an Obsession breakout, went on The Kyle Buchanan Show to give Hollywood advice about keeping Gen Z interested in theaters. Her line: Gen Z just wants to go to something where it doesn't feel like it's being sold.
Obsession turned Navarrette and co-star Michael Johnston into overnight sensations with a $522 million global haul. Obsession, the Focus Features horror movie, was produced for under $1 million and is one of the most profitable in Hollywood history.
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The interesting part is that Navarrette isn't arguing for originality as an aesthetic category so much as a transaction: not just original stories, but assurance that young moviegoers aren't being force-fed corporate slop.
But she's not a purist: she calls ads in movies fundamental and admits she grew up quoting fun commercials like State Farm and Aflac; the objection is to the pitch, not to commerce existing.