Curry Barker fever will continue into next summer as Focus Features and Blumhouse Atomic Monster are releasing the Obsession filmmaker’s next movie, Anything but Ghosts on May 7.
That’s similar to the launch date of Obsession, which bowed during the third weekend of May this year (May 15). It opened to $17.1M domestic, but held like a rock, spiking an unprecedented 39% in its second weekend ($23.9M) and another 14% in its third weekend with $27.3M for a final domestic tally of$263.4M and nearly $520M worldwide.
As we first told you, Focus has worldwide rights on Anything but Ghosts, with Universal Pictures International handling international distribution for the studio. Barker co-wrote the movie with his longtime creative collaborator and Obsession star Cooper Tomlinson. Anything but Ghosts stars Tomlinson and Barker as wannabe “ghosthunters” who find themselves in over their heads as things spiral wildly and terrifyingly out of control. Violet McGraw and Chris Reinacher also star with Bryce Dallas Howard and Aaron Paul. Barker has saidin interviews that the feature takes place in the same universe as Obsession.
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Already opening on May 7 next year is Lionsgate’s Mel Gibson-directed The Resurrection of the Christ (Part One) — technically that’s going on May 6 — as well as 20th Century Studios’ Patrick Schwarzenegger-Phoebe Dynevor movie Beach Read. Sony kicks off summer 2027 on April 30 with the feature take on Nintendo video game The Legend of Zelda.
The other production companies on Anything but Ghosts are Spooky Pictures, Divide/Conquer, in association with Image Nation and Barker and Tomlinson’s That’s a Bad Idea. EPs are Daniel Bekerman, Barker, Tomlinson and Ben Ross. Producers are Roy Lee, Steven Schneider, Jason Blum, Adam Hendricks and Greg Gilreath.
Focus Features acquired Obsession out of TIFF Midnight Madness 2025 for $15M. The CAA Media-financed movie went onto become Focus’ highest-grossing movie ever in addition to being the highest-grossing movie ever acquired out of a film festival (unseating The Blair Witch Project‘s $248.6M WW gross). Barker’s debut feature, Milk & Serial, first streamed on YouTube to close to 3M views off a production budget of $800. Obsession was made for $750K by Capstone Studios before Focus picked up the title.
Barker mentioned to Deadline at our DGA TIFF panel that on Anything but Ghosts, “The hardest day on Obsession was the easiest day on Anything but Ghosts.”
He added: “We had a 130-page script, and we had 26 days to shoot it. I’m also starring in it and directing and I’m the lead character. I have more lines than anyone in the movie. Zach Kregger just told me, ‘You have to cut 30 pages,’ and I probably should have listened to him. So did my manager; he told me that, too.
“But I didn’t cut a single page because I wanted to shoot all of it,” added Barker, who was at TIFF for the one-year anniversary of the Obsession premiere. “It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, and we were compromising shots left and right off the shot list. Gone. Just like coverage was going out the windows. It was crazy.”