382. The Obsession

A film called Obsession has become the highest-grossing film ever made for under one million dollars. The budget was under one million dollars. The gross is higher than any other film that cost under one million dollars. This record exists. Obsession now holds it.

There is a category called films that cost less than one million dollars. Hollywood studios are not in this category because Hollywood studios do not make films for less than one million dollars. One studio recently spent four hundred million dollars making a film about a man in a costume. (This is a normal production budget for a film about a man in a costume. The costume itself was not four hundred million dollars, although some of that money did go toward the costume.) The studio does not hold the record for highest-grossing film made for under one million dollars. It disqualified itself by spending four hundred million dollars.

The economics of Obsession are not complicated. Someone made a film. The film cost less than one million dollars to make. People paid to see the film. The amount they paid exceeded the amount any audience has ever paid to see a film that cost less than one million dollars. This is now documented. There is a record. Obsession is at the top of it.

The word "under" is doing important work in this record. The record is not for films that cost exactly one million dollars or films that cost around one million dollars. It is specifically for films that cost under one million dollars. Someone counted this carefully. Someone decided this was the category to track. They were right, because now there is something to be highest.

The studios will note this record. They will return to their budgets and find that they cannot hold it. The record requires spending less than one million dollars. They have spent more. They are ineligible. They will continue spending more. Obsession will continue to hold the record unless someone spends less than one million dollars and grosses more than Obsession. This is possible. Nobody has done it yet.