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Feature: Blumhouse and how horror became a box office guarantee
Mason Thames and Ethan Hawke in Black Phone 2
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Horror films have been a consistent draw for movie theaters, even in a post-pandemic, streaming world. And one of the most well-known production studios in horror is Blumhouse. The production house came on the scene in 2009 with Paranormal Activity, a low-budget found-footage film that became a smash hit spawning a franchise. Blumhouse would repeat this formula with The Purge and Insidious franchise. Now, Blumhouse is known for its more crowd pleasing scary movies like M3GAN and Five Nights at Freddy’s (with the highly anticipated sequel releasing this week), but the studio has also taken risks on up and coming directors like Jordan Peele and Damien Chazelle. So, how does a horror production house continue to survive and turn a profit in today’s film industry? And why does horror seem to be a safe bet for box office returns. Joining us to discuss the current horror movie landscape is Abhijay Prakash, president of Blumhouse.
You can read all about Blumhouse’s rise in their new book Horror’s New Wave: 15 Years of Blumhouse.
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This work is only possible with community support. Every investigation, service guide, and story is made possible by people like you who believe that local news is a public good and that everyone deserves access to trustworthy local information.
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