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Jason Blum on the surge of horror and the genre's future
A view of the atmosphere at a special New York screening of M3GAN on Jan.04, 2023.
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Slaven Vlasic
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Getty Images North America
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Topline:
With the business of Halloween bigger than ever, Blumhouse founder and CEO Jason Blum reveals his thoughts on the growing horror market, a shift in audience demand for horror sequels and artificial intelligence.
Why it matters: Jason Blum has become the king of movie horror, turning Five Nights at Freddy’s, M3GAN and more into nine-figure hits. As Blumhouse has become one of Hollywood’s most recognizable brands, Blum is expanding his ambitions, producing more and more types of horror movies, TV series, video games, live events and more.
Sequels, sequels, sequels: Blumhouse’s slate used to be 50% sequels, 50% originals. Now, it’s a two-thirds, one-third mix of sequels to originals because, according to Blum, the audience is showing up to sequels about 80% or 90% versus 10% or 20% for originals. As he notes, only one original horror film has broken out this year (NEON’s Longlegs), but six sequels have.
Learning about AI: Blum made waves with his deal earlier this month with Meta to test its forthcoming Movie Gen AI video tools. He says that if he had a magic wand that could make it as if AI never existed, he “would stand at the top of a mountain and wave it like crazy.” But he wants to learn about and understand the technology since there’s no going back now.
For more... read the full story on The Ankler.
This story is published in partnership with The Ankler, a paid subscription publication about the entertainment industry.
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