Jason Blum – who withdrew alone as an independent producer in the early 2000s after leaving the Miramax of Harvey Weinstein – was haunted during these years by the fear that he never succeeds in himself.
It was there that he received a DVD of a tiny horror film entitled Paranormal activity It was filmed for less than $ 15,000 by the filmmaker unknown Oren Peli. Blum and others thought that the film could be a success and tried to find it a distributor. One door after the other was closed, but Blum would not give up and finally helped to arouse the interest of none other than DreamWorks of Steven Spielberg. Spielberg himself watched the film and was completely frightened, according to Hollywood Lore.
DreamWorks and his then partner, Paramount Pictures, released the film for the first time in more than a dozen university cities at the end of September 2009 before deploying it on a national scale as Halloween approaches. Paranormal would be to win $ 107.9 million at the national level and $ 194.2 million worldwide to become one of the most profitable titles in Hollywood history. He also put the Blum banner, Blumhouse, on the map and inaugurated the golden age of the photo of micro-budget horror which frightened several million dollars such as Paranormal,, Insidious And The purge.
Blum made Universal his home studio by a lucrative affair which allows him to create creative, as well as the freedom to work with other studios. Among his many successes for Universal, he helped revive the Halloween franchise, and also returned to its prestigious roots during the production of Oscar winners such as Jordan Peele To go out (2017) and Spike Lee Blackkklansman (2018).
Now, however, the fear of Blum’s failure of Blum has returned to a makeshift reversal which began in 2024 and continued seriously this year, with the four outings of 2025 becoming major breaches at the box office, starting with Wolf ($ 34. 1 million worldwide), The woman in the courtyard ($ 23.3 million worldwide) and Drop ($ 28.6 million worldwide).
But by far the most shocking failure was M3GAN 2.0Who bombed the weekend from June 27 to 29 and amaze Hollywood, since it is a series of unreserved success. Released in January 2023, M3gan – About an AI doll that takes up its own life with horrible consequences – launched at $ 30.4 million at the national level on its way to 181.7 million dollars worldwide against a single budget of $ 12 million.
M3GAN 2.0which cost at least $ 25 million to produce before marketing, opened up to only $ 10.2 million at the national level and $ 17 million worldwide.
So what happened? Director Gerard Johnstone, Blumhouse and Atomic Monster partner, led by James Wan, decided to go in a different direction and make the M3gan Following more than one photo of science fiction, by which the doll becomes the protagonist in the style of Terminator 2: Judgment Day. The public was simply not interested in the question of knowing. Box-office experts and Hollywood initiates also question the wisdom to publish more in the much more competitive summer corridor.
The initiates of Blumhouse Tell The Hollywood Reporter That the research of soul within the company has already started. It absorbs the lessons of this difficult year and re -evaluates its slate through the objective of knowing whether a horror film is considered a cinematographic event at a time when the market of these prices is sugentuated. There is also a recognition that Blumhouse’s ambition to go out up to 10 titles per year of theatrical can be too large, Blum agreeing that the box office cannot resist as many horror films as before, especially young and titles. More importantly, a course correction is required in terms of recalling what the horror brand of Blumhouse means, with a key point being that what has worked in the past does not necessarily work in the changing landscape today.
The company now looks in October Black phone 2which is a pure characteristic of horror, and December Five nights at Freddy’s 2What test tests would have responded with enthusiasm. The first Freddy reported a huge 297.1 million dollars at the world box office to become the greatest benefit in the history of Blumhouse against a budget of $ 20 million, not adjusted for inflation. The initiates of Blumhouse and Universal hope that the photo will restore the brilliance of the house that Blum has built.
An urgent question against Blumhouse is M3GAN 2.0 spin off Soulm8tewhich will be released in theaters on January 9, 2026, and tells the story of a companion of adults’ robot. Although it is soon to say if the film’s plans will change, the initiates say that discussions are underway regarding the next list, including Soulm8teBut add that the spin-off has tested well.
Blum himself decided to speak proactively M3GAN 2.0 And the blumhouse crisis in an interview with the podcast with The city‘S Matt Belloni during the weekend of opening the film. He owned what could have been so bad.
“We all thought that Megan was like Superman. We could do everything for him. We could change genres. We could put it in summer. We could make it look different. We could transform it from a bad guy. And we gave too much to what extent of people was powerful with it,” said Blum, reiterating that the public was not ready to go around. (He also admitted to be in “pain” all weekend.)
A producer of familiar horror with the interior operation of Blumhouse could not agree more, say THR The film’s failure has summed up in Hubris. “They thought they were all smart who changed the dates and genres,” said the person. Add another horror producer: “It was not the continuation that the public was looking for. It was the film that the director wanted.”
The good news: nobody in Universal is scary M3GAN 2.0 Or the recent Blumhouse crisis, because its titles are much more budgeted than most studio photos. “We would have a different conversation if they were not responsible,” said a studio initiate. “In the end, each of these films will make money.” All in all, the 42 Blumhouse outings since its creation in 2002 reported more than $ 6 billion at the world box office (not all belong to Universal). The vast majority costs less than $ 20 million to produce, and in many cases, especially less.
“I said to [Blumhouse employees] This morning, if you look at massive talents, whether it is a movie star or it is a production company or whether it is a studio, each of your favorite people has undergone crises. And this also applies to Blumhouse, “said Blum in his The city interview.
Paul Dergarabedian, chief analyst of Comscre, says that no one is immune to traffic jams which are currently taking place at the summer box office, whether it is family films that are mounting or gender films such as genre films such as 28 years later And M3GAN 2.0. He adds: “This is played more like a school of cinematographic gladiators or a Dickensian market, where it is the best time for some and the worst times for others.”
—The Kit Borys contributed to this story.
