Blumhouse’s Future: Are Budget Horror Films in Crisis?

Producer Jason Blum, founder of production company Blumhouse, built a reputation for massive box office successes with low-budget horror films. However, recent releases have seen a concerning dip in performance, leading to speculation about the future of Blumhouse and the profitability of the micro-budgeted horror pic genre.

– Jason Blum, the independent producer behind Blumhouse Productions, gained success with low-budget horror films like Paranormal Activity, Insidious, and The Purge. However, recent box office failures such as M3GAN 2.0 have led to a reevaluation of the company’s strategy.
– Despite these losses, Universal isn’t concerned due to the modest budgets of Blumhouse’s movies. The company’s releases since 2002 have grossed over $6 billion globally.
– Blumhouse is now focusing on upcoming releases like Black Phone 2 and Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, hoping these will restore the company’s success. The studio is also assessing forthcoming projects and the company’s brand in the changing cinematic landscape.

Jason Blum, after forging his own path in the early 2000s as an independent producer having left Harvey Weinstein’s Miramax, feared he might not be successful on his own. However, his career took a significant turn when he received a DVD of “Paranormal Activity,” a horror movie directed by the then-unknown filmmaker Oren Peli. Despite having a meagre budget of less than $15,000, Blum believed in the potential of the film and sought a distributor tirelessly. His determination paid off when Steven Spielberg’s DreamWorks showed interest in the film.

This was the beginning of a successful journey for Blum. Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks first premier the movie in multiple college towns in late September 2009, rolling it out nationwide as Halloween approached. The movie went on to make remarkable earnings of $107.9 million domestically and $194.2 million globally, becoming one of Hollywood’s most profitable titles. This also put Blum’s production company, Blumhouse, in the spotlight, ushering in the Golden Age of the micro-budgeted horror pic, generating multi-million dollar franchises such as Paranormal, Insidious, and The Purge.

Blum struck a lucrative deal with Universal, becoming his home studio, granting him creative freedom and the liberty to work with other studios. His successes with Universal include reviving the Halloween franchise and producing Oscar-winning films such as Jordan Peele’s “Get Out” (2017) and Spike Lee’s “BlacKkKlansman” (2018).

However, Blum has not been immune to failure. His fears resurfaced in 2024, and since then, all four of Blumhouse’s 2025 releases have been significant box office disappointments, including “Wolf Man,” “The Woman in the Yard,” and “Drop”. The most shocking failure among these was “M3GAN 2.0”, a sequel to a previous hit movie about an AI doll who evolves to have a life of her own, causing horrific aftermaths. The sequel, which had a production cost of up to $25 million before marketing, saw disappointingly low opening earnings of $10.2 domestically and $17 million globally.

Director Gerard Johnstone, Blumhouse and partner Atomic Monster chose to translate the horror sequel into a sci-fi action film, transforming the doll into a protagonist along the lines of Terminator 2: Judgment Day. This shift in genre did not resonate with audiences and was further impacted by other missteps such as inappropriate timing of the release.

The team at Blumhouse is currently reassessing their strategies, learning from their failures of the year and questioning if a horror film can be seen as a cinematic event at a time when the market is already saturated with horror. They agree that releasing up to 10 titles theatrically a year might be too ambitious and that the box office cannot handle as many horror films as it used to. Therefore, Blumhouse is reevaluating its upcoming slate and deciding on a much-needed course correction.

The production company is now hoping for success from their upcoming horror feature “Black Phone 2” in October and “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” in December, which has promising audience test responses. Both Blumhouse and Universal are optimistic that these movies will help them regain their lost glory.

Blum acknowledges these drawbacks and recognizes an overzealous approach in his recent podcast with the Town’s Matt Belloni. He acknowledged the retaliation of his audience against genre changes and confessed his weekend felt painful. The team at Blumhouse agreed that the failure of “M3GAN 2.0” can be attributed to hubris, influenced by changes in release dates and genres.

While dealing with recent setbacks, Blum reassures everyone that every successful talent, inclusive of actors, production houses and studios, face challenges, and that holds true for Blumhouse as well. Universal is maintaining calm amid these recent failures since the movies are budget-friendly. The company remains hopeful as Blumhouse’s 42 releases since 2002 have amassed more than $6 billion in worldwide box office collections.