Jason Blum on the surge in horror and the future of the genre

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Why is this important: Jason Blum became the king of horror films, 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 has expanded his ambitions to create more and more horror films, TV series, video games, live action and more.

Sequels, sequels, sequels: Previously, Blumhouse’s plans were 50% sequels and 50% originals. Now it’s a mixture of two-thirds, one-third sequels to the original, because according to Blum, audiences watch the sequels at about 80% or 90% versus 10% or 20% for the originals. As he points out, there’s only been one original horror film released this year (NEON’s Long-legged), but there are six sequels.

Learning AI: Blum made a splash by striking a deal with Meta earlier this month to test Movie Gen AI’s upcoming video tools. He says that if he had a magic wand that could make it seem like artificial intelligence never existed, he would “stand on top of a mountain and wave it like crazy.” But he wants to study and understand this technology because there is no going back.

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