The two biggest companies in theatrical release horror films – Jason Blum’s Blumhouse Productions and James Wan’s Atomic Monster – are reportedly in advanced talks to merge according to The New York Times.
Over the past fifteen years, Blumhouse Productions titles have generated about $5 billion in ticket sales with recent success stories including “The Black Phone” and “Halloween Ends”.
Wan, meanwhile, is the man behind “The Conjuring,” “Saw”, and “Insidious” franchises. His first-look deal with Warner Bros. expired in June after seven years, and films from his production company have taken in at least $3.5 billion in ticket sales.
Blum wants Blumhouse to grow fast and plans to make at least eight horror movies for release in theaters each year – up from the three or four annual titles it has delivered to date. In addition, he wants to make another slate of horror flicks for Peacock as well as television series.
They don’t always work, Blum’s recent “Firestarter” remake fizzled out, for example. But, outside of superhero films, horror has become about the only fail-safe genre at the box office and benefits from being far cheaper to produce (and thus highly profitable).
Blum says in an interview at Universal headquarters: “James is probably 70-80% artist and 30-20% a business person, and I am the reverse. We really do complement each other, yin and yang, which is part of what makes this so exciting.”
Specifics of the deal are vague, but from the sounds of it, Atomic Monster would become a creatively autonomous label inside of Blumhouse and have a first-look deal with Universal. A source for the outlet says Wan would hold a substantial ownership stake in Blumhouse, with Blum still the majority owner and NBCUniversal a third stakeholder. They hope to close the deal during the first quarter of next year.
Wan says: “It really allows me a bigger canvas to paint on if you will.” The filmmaker, who is in post-production on the “Aquaman” sequel, made a return to horror last year with the wild Giallo tribute “Malignant”.
Atomic Monster first pitched the idea for the upcoming killer AI doll film “M3GAN” to Warner Bros., who passed. Wan brought the project to Mr. Blum, who pounced and Universal is said to be so happy with the result that they’re already talking a sequel. That film is set for a theatrical release on January 6th.
