Jason Blum
Jason Ferus Blum is an American producer. He is the founder and CEO of Blumhouse Productions, best known for horror franchises including Paranormal Activity, Insidious, The Purge, and Halloween.
Other Blumhouse films include Sinister, Oculus, Whiplash, The Gallows, The Gift, Hush, Split, Ouija: Origin of Evil, Get Out, Happy Death Day, Upgrade, BlacKkKlansman, Us, The Invisible Man, Freaky, The Black Phone, M3GAN, Five Nights at Freddy's, Speak No Evil and Five Nights at Freddy's 2.
Blum received Academy Award for Best Picture nominations for Whiplash, Get Out, and BlacKkKlansman. He won a Primetime [Emmy Award for Outstanding Television Movie] for the drama film The Normal Heart and a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series for the documentary miniseries The Jinx. He also received a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Musical for Death Becomes Her.
Early life
Jason Ferus Blum was born in Los Angeles on February 20, 1969, the son of art professor Shirley Neilsen Blum and independent art dealer Irving Blum. His father served as director of the Ferus Gallery. He is Jewish. He graduated from New York's Vassar College in 1991. He was a roommate of future filmmaker Noah Baumbach during his time there, and later produced Baumbach's first film Kicking and Screaming.Film career
Blum found work as an executive for Bob and Harvey Weinstein at their production company Miramax, and later as an independent producer for Paramount Pictures. Prior to his tenure at Miramax, he was a producing director at the Malaparte theater company in New York. He is a member of the board of trustees of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. He obtained financing for his first film as producer, Kicking and Screaming, after asking family friend Steve Martin to read the script and write a letter endorsing it if he enjoyed it. After Martin obliged, Blum replaced the title page of the script with copies of Martin's letter before he sent the script to Hollywood executives.In 2000, Blum founded Blumhouse Productions, which is known for producing micro-budget films that give directors full creative control. Bloomberg News praised him for making "blockbusters for pennies", the first example of which came with the horror film Paranormal Activity, which became one of the most profitable films of all time as it grossed nearly $200 million on a $15,000 budget. In addition, Planet Money released a special podcast episode about the company's methods, referring to Blum as the "business genius behind Get Out".Blum also produced Insidious, Sinister, The Purge and Happy Death Day, as well as their sequels. In 2014, he served as executive producer for the television film The Normal Heart, which went on to win the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Television Movie. In 2015, he won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series for HBO's The Jinx. BlacKkKlansman, Whiplash, and Get Out, all produced by Blum, were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.
In 2018, Blum said in an interview that the reason no woman had ever directed a Blumhouse horror film was that "there are not a lot of female directors and even less who are inclined to do horror", but said that he hoped to one day achieve this goal. After much criticism on social media, in which lists of such directors were widely circulated, he apologized for what he called his "dumb comments". Sophia Takal co-wrote and directed the Blumhouse horror remake Black Christmas, the studio's first theatrically-released film by a female director.
Other ventures
Political views
In June 2018, Blum told Variety that his upcoming prequel The First Purge would deal with racial tensions in the U.S. and said that all of the films in The Purge franchise have a political slant, giving examples such as the first film primarily being a parable about gun control and the third film addressing class warfare. He said, " reaches an audience in which politics may not be front of mind and it makes politics front of mind. The Purge reaches an audience that isn't thinking of gun control every day and might start thinking of gun control. If every time there's a shooting in the United States, the government's answer is put more guns in people's hands, then what The Purge is showing doesn't seem all that crazy. Donald Trump keeps saying 'give teachers guns'. I could see him saying 'let people shoot whoever they want to for 12 hours a year'."In November 2018, Blum attended the Israel Film Festival in Los Angeles to accept an award for Achievement in Film and Television. In his acceptance speech, he said, "A lot is on the line . The last two years have been hard for all of us who cherish the freedom as citizens of this country. The great thing about this country is that you can like Trump, but I don't have to, and I can say what I feel about itand I don't like it." He was heavily booed, to which he responded, "As you can see from this auditorium, it's the end of civil discourse. We have a president who calls the press the enemy of the people. Thanks to our president, antisemitism is on the rise." Yossi Dina tried unsuccessfully to pull Blum off the stage. Blum later tweeted the full speech, which said in part, "Nationalism is surging. Dog whistle politics are rampant and antisemitism is on the rise in ways my generation never thought imaginable." He received support from fellow Jews such as Judd Apatow and Jamie Lee Curtis, while festival director Meir Fenigstein stated that the audience "greatly lacked respect" and "turned an evening of celebration and recognition into something else" by booing him.
Business
On August 14, 2020, Daily Front Row listed Blum as one of a group of high-profile investors who purchased failing fashion magazine W. After appearing on an episode of Shark Tank, Blum made a deal with American Immersion Theater, the leading immersive theater company in the U.S. Blum sits on the boards of the Public Theater in New York, the Sundance Institute, Vassar College, and the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.Philanthropy
In 2022, Blum donated $10 million to Vassar College, which was noted as the largest gift ever given to the college from a male alumnus.Personal life
Blum married journalist Lauren A. E. Schuker in Los Angeles on July 14, 2012. They currently reside in a townhouse in Brooklyn Heights, which he purchased for $9.8 million in 2019.Filmography
Film
Paramount Pictures
ProducerExecutive producerA House on the Bayou American Refugee Torn Hearts Unhuman The Visitor There's Something Wrong with the Children Unseen
- ''The Passenger''
Netflix
Producer| Year | Title | Director | Notes |
| 2016 | Hush | Mike Flanagan | |
| 2018 | Benji | Brandon Camp | |
| 2022 | Our Father | Lucie Jourdan | Documentary |
| 2022 | Mr. Harrigan's Phone | John Lee Hancock |
Executive producerA Secret Love
- ''Pray Away''
Amazon MGM Studios
Executive producerBlack Box Evil Eye Nocturne Bingo Hell Black as Night Madres The Manor Nanny The BondsmanProducerThe Lie Run Sweetheart Run
- ''Totally Killer''
FilmDistrict
Producer| Year | Title | Director | Notes |
| 2010 | Insidious | James Wan | |
| 2013 | Insidious: Chapter 2 | James Wan | |
| 2016 | The Darkness | Greg McLean | Through High Top Releasing; With BH Tilt |
| 2016 | Incarnate | Brad Peyton | Through High Top Releasing; With BH Tilt |
Executive producerThe Green Inferno Sleight
The Weinsteins
Producer| Year | Title | Director | Notes |
| 2013 | Dark Skies | Scott Stewart | Through Dimension Films and The Weinstein Company |
| 2016 | Viral | Henry Joost Ariel Schulman | Through Dimension Films and RADiUS-TWC |
| 2017 | Amityville: The Awakening | Franck Khalfoun | Through Dimension Films and RADiUS-TWC |
Executive producerHamlet The Adventures of Tom Thumb and Thumbelina The Reader Lawless
- ''13 Sins''
Other
ProducerExecutive producerOne Way Out Graduation The FP Oculus Exeter Fifteen Stockholm The Vigil Pharma Bro Exposure Soft & Quiet
Actor
- ''Unknown Dimension: The Story of Paranormal Activity''
Television
Executive producer| Year | Title | Notes |
| 2002 | Hysterical Blindness | TV movie |
| 2004 | The Fever | TV movie |
| 2012 | The River | 8 episodes |
| 2013 | Stranded | 6 episodes |
| 2014 | The Normal Heart | TV movie |
| 2014 | Ascension | Miniseries |
| 2015 | Eye Candy | 10 episodes |
| 2015 | The Jinx | Miniseries |
| 2015 | South of Hell | 8 episodes |
| 2015 | Hellevator | 12 episodes |
| 2015–2016 | #15SecondScare | 14 episodes |
| 2016 | Judgment Day: Prison or Parole? | 3 episodes |
| 2016 | 12 Deadly Days | 12 episodes |
| 2017 | Election Day: Lens Across America | TV movie |
| 2017 | Cold Case Files | 10 episodes |
| 2018 | Run for Your Life | TV pilot |
| 2018 | Ghoul | Miniseries |
| 2018 | Sharp Objects | Miniseries |
| 2018 | Sacred Lies | 20 episodes |
| 2018 | Tremors | TV pilot |
| 2019 | Smiley Face Killers: The Hunt For Justice | 6 episodes |
| 2019 | The Loudest Voice | Miniseries |
| 2019 | No One Saw a Thing | 6 episodes |
| 2019 | Liberty: Mother of Exiles | TV movie |
| 2018–2021 | Into the Dark | 22 episodes |
| 2018–2019 | The Purge | 20 episodes |
| 2020 | Kill Chain: The Cyber War on America's Elections | TV movie |
| 2020 | Betaal | 4 episodes |
| 2020 | A Wilderness of Error | 5 episodes |
| 2020 | The Good Lord Bird | Miniseries |
| 2022 | The Thing About Pam | |
| 2023 | The Horror of Dolores Roach | 8 episodes |
| 2025 | The Rainmaker | |
| 2025 | Nightmares of Nature | |
| 2026 | Scarpetta |
'''Producer'''