More than a year after stating their intentions to combine their companies, horror maestros Jason Blum and James Wan have made it official. Wan’s banner Atomic Monster and Blum’s Blumhouse have closed a deal to merge, Blum announced on X Tuesday with a video showcasing titles such as The Conjuring, M3GAN and Get Out.
“The preeminent homes for horror are now under one roof,” Blum captioned the video.
The two banners have worked together previously, and have the feature Night Swim in theaters Friday from Blumhouse’s longtime home Universal, where his and Wan’s combined company has a first look deal. The pair also were behind the 2023 hit M3GAN and first partnered on the Insidious franchise in 2010.
Under the deal, Blumhouse and Atomic Monster will work as separate labels and retain creative independence, with a three-way ownership structure split by Blum, the majority owner; Wan; and Comcast, the parent company of NBCUniversal.
Wan and Blum have said the partnership will encourage greater collaboration between the two, and could mark an uptick in output, as well.
“We don’t usually put out more than three or four theatricals a year, and my hope is that with James we could double that to six to eight theatricals,” Blum told The Hollywood Reporter in November 2022, shortly after announcing the potential deal.
Blum is coming off of Five Nights at Freddy’s, the highest grossing film in Blumhouse history. Wan is the mind behind numerous franchises, including Saw and The Conjuring. He is currently in theaters with Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, which like multiple superhero movies released last year, has struggled to find its footing at the box office, where horror remains a one of the few dependable draws. The merger comes as studios have ramped up efforts to lock down horror talent. It scribe Gary Dauberman recently inked a first-look deal with Sony, while Paramount set Smile filmmaker Parker Finn with his own first-look deal.
