Jason Ferus Blum (born February 20, 1969) is an American producer. He is founder and CEO of Blumhouse Productions, which has produced the horror franchises Paranormal Activity (2007–2021), Insidious (2010–2023), The Purge (2013–2021), and Halloween (2018-2022). Blum has also produced Sinister (2012), Oculus (2013), Whiplash (2014), The Gallows (2015), The Gift (2015), Hush (2016), Split (2016), Ouija: Origin of Evil (2016), Get Out (2017), Happy Death Day (2017), Upgrade (2018), Us (2019), The Invisible Man (2020), Freaky (2020), The Black Phone (2021), M3GAN (2022), and Five Nights at Freddy's (2023).
Early Life and Education[]
Jason Ferus Blum was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of Shirley Neilsen Blum (née Neilsen) and Irving Blum. His mother was an art professor and his father was an independent art dealer and director of the Ferus Gallery. Blum is of Jewish heritage.
He graduated from Vassar College in 1991. While at Vassar, he and fellow future filmmaker Noah Baumbach were roommates, and Blum produced Baumbach's first film, Kicking and Screaming, in 1995.
Career[]
Blum worked for Bob and Harvey Weinstein as an executive at Miramax, and later as an independent producer for Paramount Pictures. Prior to his tenure at Miramax, Blum was a producing director at Ethan Hawke's Malaparte theater company. 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 (1995), after receiving a letter from family acquaintance, entertainer Steve Martin, who endorsed the script. Blum attached the letter to copies of the script he sent around to Hollywood executives.
Blumhouse Productions[]
In 2000, he founded Blumhouse Productions, which specializes in producing micro-budget movies that give directors full creative control over the projects. Bloomberg News praised Blum for making "blockbusters for pennies", including the horror film Paranormal Activity which cost $15,000 to make and then grossed nearly $200 million. In addition, NPR's Planet Money did a special podcast about the company's methods.
Blum also produced Insidious (2010), Sinister (2012), The Purge (2013) and Happy Death Day (2017), 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.
Blum's feature films BlacKkKlansman, Whiplash and Get Out were all nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.
In 2018, Blum said in an interview that the reason no woman had ever directed one of his horror films was that "there are not a lot of female directors (...) and even less who are inclined to do horror." After much criticism on social media, in which lists of such directors were circulated, he apologized for what he called his "dumb comments". In 2019, Sophia Takal directed and co-wrote the studio's horror remake Black Christmas, which opened on December 13, and was the studio's first theatrically-released film by a female director.
Horror Filmography[]
| Year | Film | Director | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Paranormal Activity | Oren Peli | |
| 2010 | Insidious | James Wan | |
| Paranormal Activity 2 | Tod Williams | ||
| 2011 | Paranormal Activity 3 | Henry JoostAriel Schulman | |
| 2012 | Sinister | Scott Derrickson | |
| The Lords of Salem | Rob Zombie | ||
| The Bay | Barry Levinson | ||
| Paranormal Activity 4 | Henry JoostAriel Schulman | ||
| 2013 | The Green Inferno | Eli Roth | Executive Producer |
| Oculus | Mike Flanagan | ||
| Insidious: Chapter 2 | James Wan | ||
| The Purge | James DeMonaco | ||
| Dark Skies | Scott Stewart | ||
| 2014 | Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones | Christopher Landon | |
| The Town That Dreaded Sundown | Alfonso Gomez-Rejon | ||
| Unfriended | Leo Gabriadze | Executive Producer | |
| The Purge: Anarchy | James DeMonaco | ||
| Mockingbird | Bryan Bertino | ||
| Mercy | Peter Cornwell | ||
| Ouija | Stiles White | ||
| Jessabelle | Kevin Greutert | ||
| 13 Sins | Daniel Stamm | ||
| Creep | Patrick Brice | ||
| 2015 | Sinister 2 | Ciarán Foy | |
| The Lazarus Effect | David Gelb | ||
| The Gift | Joel Edgerton | ||
| Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension | Gregory Plotkin | ||
| Curve | Iain Softley | ||
| Visions | Kevin Greutert | ||
| Area 51 | Oren Peli | ||
| The Gallows | Chris Lofing
Travis Cluff |
||
| Insidious: Chapter 3 | Leigh Whannell | ||
| Exeter | Marcus Nispel | Executive Producer | |
| Martrys | Kevin Goetz
Michael Goetz |
||
| The Visit | M. Night Shyamalan | ||
| 2016 | Incarnate | Brad Peyton | |
| Hush | Mike Flanagan | ||
| Ouija: Origin of Evil | |||
| Viral | Henry JoostAriel Schulman | ||
| Split | M. Night Shyamalan | ||
| The Veil | Phil Joanou | ||
| The Purge: Election Year | James DeMonaco | ||
| The Darkness | Greg McLean | ||
| 2017 | Amityville: The Awakening | Franck Khalfoun | |
| Creep 2 | Patrick Brice | ||
| Get Out | Jordan Peele | ||
| The Keeping Hours | Karen Moncrieff | ||
| Happy Death Day | Christopher Landon | ||
| Stephanie | Akiva Goldsman | ||
| 2018 | Halloween | David Gordon Green | |
| The Lie | Veena Sud | ||
| Upgrade | Leigh Whannell | ||
| The First Purge | Gerard McMurray | ||
| Insidious: The Last Key | Adam Robitel | ||
| Truth or Dare | Jeff Wadlow | ||
| Unfriended: Dark Web | Stephen Susco | ||
| Seven in Heaven | Chris Eigeman | ||
| 2019 | Ma | Tate Taylor | |
| Us | Jordan Peele | ||
| The Vigil | Keith Thomas | Executive Producer | |
| Don't Let Go | Jacob Aaron Estes | ||
| Happy Death Day 2U | Christopher Landon | ||
| Black Christmas | Sophia Takal | ||
| Sweetheart | J. D. Dillard | ||
| 2020 | The Craft: Legacy | Zoe Lister-Jones | |
| Run Sweetheart Run | Shana Feste | ||
| Nocturne | Zu Quirke | Executive Producer | |
| Black Box | Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour Jr. | ||
| Evil Eye | Elan Dassani
Rajeev Dassani | ||
| Freaky | Christopher Landon | ||
| The Invisible Man | Leigh Whannell | ||
| The Hunt | Craig Zobel | ||
| Fantasy Island | Jeff Wadlow | ||
| You Should Have Left | David Koepp | ||
| 2021 | Dashcam | Rob Savage | |
| A House on the Bayou | Alex McAulay | Executive Producer | |
| Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin | William Eubank | ||
| The Forever Purge | Everardo Gout | ||
| Halloween Kills | David Gordon Green | ||
| Black as Night | Sherman Payne | Executive Producer | |
| 2022 | They/Them | John Logan | |
| The Black Phone | Scott Derrickson | ||
| Firestarter | Keith Thomas | ||
| Halloween Ends | David Gordon Green | ||
| Unhuman | Marcus Dunstun | Executive Producer | |
| Nanny | Nikyatu Jusu | ||
| Mr. Harrigan's Phone | John Lee Hancock | ||
| 2023 | M3GAN | Gerald Johnstone | |
| Insidious: The Red Door | Patrick Wilson | ||
| Totally Killer | Nahnatchka Khan | ||
| The Exorcist: Believer | David Gordon Green | ||
| The Passenger | Carter Smith | Executive Producer | |
| Five Nights at Freddy's | Emma Tammi | ||
| 2024 | Speak No Evil | James Watkins | |
| Night Swim | Bryce McGuire | ||
| Afraid | Chris Weitz | ||
| Imaginary | Jeff Wadlow |