If you're a horror fan, you're familiar with Blumhouse Productions (cited as Blumhouse from here out). Even if you're not a horror fan, you've probably watched a Blumhouse film without knowing it ("Whiplash?" "Jem and the Holograms?" "Tooth Fairy?"). Jason Blum's nightmare factory is synonymous with today's mainstream horror pillars, securing the rights to everything from "Halloween" to "The Exorcist" and beyond. Indeed, it's impossible to banter about our contemporary horror era without acknowledging how prevalent and prodigious Blumhouse has become โ so why does it feel like it's ghosting us this year?
Blumhouse decimated last year's horror movie market. In 2023, Blum's juggernaut scared up nearly $800 million worldwide in box office totals. Emma Tammi's video game adaptation "Five Nights at Freddy's" boasted a high score of $297 million on a $20 million budget โ one of nine films released by Blumhouse. Now, there's no metric for reporting for streaming titles like "Totally Killer" (Prime Video) or "The Passenger (MGM+), so that $800 million-ish haul only considers "Five Nights at Freddy's," "The Exorcist: Believer," "Insidious: The Red Door," and "M3GAN." Anywhere you looked, whether in theaters or on multiple streaming platforms, Blumhouse was crushing the competition.
How about 2024? It's like night and day.