Jason Blum

Jason Blum, founder of Blumhouse Productions, is a two-time Academy Award-
nominated and two-time Emmy and Peabody Award-winning producer. His multi-media
company is known for pioneering a new model of studio filmmaking: producing high-
quality micro-budget films.  In 2017, all three of Blumhouse’s wide-release, micro-budget
movies opened to number one at the domestic box office – each based on an original
concept.
Early in the year, the Blumhouse blockbusters Split from M. Night Shyamalan and Get
Out from Jordan Peele, with combined budgets of less than $15 million, went on to gross
more than $500 million worldwide.  In October, Happy Death Day was the company’s
third number one film of the year. In addition, Get Out was nominated for four Academy
Awards in 2018, including Best Picture.
Blumhouse has also produced the highly profitable The Purge, Insidious, Sinister and
Paranormal Activity franchises which together have grossed more than $1.7 billion at the
global box office. Paranormal Activity, which was made for $15,000 and grossed close
to $200 million worldwide, launched the Blumhouse model and became the most
profitable film of all time. The company’s titles also include The Gift, Unfriended and The
Visit. Blum, who was nominated for an Academy Award for producing Whiplash, has
appeared on Vanity Fair’s New Establishment list each year since 2015, received the
2016 Producer of the Year Award at CinemaCon and was named to the TIME 100 list of
the world’s most influential people in 2017.
In television, Blum won Emmys for producing HBO’s The Normal Heart and The Jinx
and two Peabody Awards – for The Jinx and the documentary How to Dance in Ohio. In
2017, Blum launched an independent TV studio with investment from ITV Studios.
Current television projects include Sharp Objects, a mini-series for HBO starring Amy
Adams based on Gillian Flynn’s bestselling novel of the same name, and a mini-series
for Showtime based on journalist Gabriel Sherman’s reporting on former Fox News
Chief, Roger Ailes. Blumhouse is also bringing The Purge franchise to television, co-
producing a series with Universal Cable Productions for USA and SyFy.
Blumhouse’s multi-platform offerings include BH Tilt, a distribution company that takes
advantage of new marketing strategies; Blumhouse Books, a publishing imprint with
Doubleday; the digital genre network CryptTV; and Blumhouse Live which produces live
scary events for companies like AB InBev.
Blum is a member of the Sundance Institute’s Director’s Advisory Group. He also serves
on the Board of the Public Theater in New York and the Board of Trustees for Vassar
College. Before founding Blumhouse, Blum served as co-head of the Acquisitions and
Co-Productions department at Miramax Films in New York. He began his career as the
producing director of the Malaparte Theater Company, which was founded by Ethan
Hawke.
He is married to journalist and screenwriter Lauren Blum and they have a daughter,
Roxy.

[Programming descriptions are generated by participants and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of SXSW.]