‘The Black Phone’ Producer Jason Blum Laments Rising Film Budgets: ‘I Don’t Think It’s Good for Business’
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Ten years ago, Jason Blum made “Sinister” with director Scott Derrickson on a $3 million budget. The horror film went on to make $82 million at the worldwide box office and helped define the low-budget horror model that has come to shape the Blumhouse Productions brand. Today, Blum is still miles away from making $200 million blockbusters, but he recognizes how the changes in the industry have created new challenges for him in operating on the same shoestring budgets.
“I wish the movies were still $2 million. They’re a few million dollars more than two now, which is actually too bad, but I can’t fight what’s happened,” Blum told TheWrap for this week’s Office With a View and ahead of Friday’s release of his and Derrickson’s creative reunion, “The Black Phone.”
“There’s been so much capital injected into the content making business,” he continued. “It’s very hard to make movies at the budgets we used to make [them at].”
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Blum explained that talent has grown accustomed to being paid upfront in the work they do with streamers. And the sheer amount of content and laws of supply and demand have caused prices to climb, meaning that Blumhouse budgets that once started at $1 million, $3 million or $5 million have now grown to “around $8-to-$9 million or $10 million.” Meanwhile, “The Black Phone” reportedly has a budget in the $18 million range.
“I don’t think it’s good for the business,” Blum said, reiterating comments he made in a recent guest op-ed he wrote for The New York Times. “You can create better shows and movies when you keep costs down, because when you keep costs down you can take creative risks that financiers are less liable to make the more expensive the movies are.”
Blum is actually having quite the week. In addition to “The Black Phone” hitting theaters, the trailer for John Logan’s buzzy, LGBTQ slasher horror film “They/Them” dropped online; he was elected to the Academy Board of Governors after four prior failed campaigns; and he announced a hefty $10 million donation to his alma mater, Vassar College — a sum that’s bigger than the budget of most of his movies.
In speaking with TheWrap, Blum discussed his close relationship with Derrickson, how he’s grown as a filmmaker since those early days and where he sees the state of the horror genre at large.
This conversation has been edited for style and length.
What does it mean to you to be able to bring Scott Derrickson back into the Blumhouse fold after “Sinister” helped shape the Blumhouse model?
The single most important signal to the creative community that you know what you’re doing is to have people come back and work with you repeatedly. I think it’s better than any publicity or anything else.
I was really happy that “Sinister” was a small reason why Scott got into tentpole moviemaking like he did for Marvel [with the “Doctor Strange” movies], and I’m also very glad that Scott felt he was ready to exercise the old muscles he had back from his independent days.
It was a very happy call to get, because Scott called me and said, “I have a scary movie for you.” And basically, I had already said yes to myself before I had read the script.
He told us that he considers you one of his closest friends in the business.
I feel the same way about him. He’s everything a producer hopes a director will be in their partner, which is he listens and he cooperates when it’s right and at the same time, if he thinks we’re wrong, he digs in. And ultimately, that’s what creates good movies, is that kind of back and forth, give and take with the director. He’s able to recognize good ideas and incorporate them, and he’s able to recognize bad ideas and push back at them. And that’s the dream of every producer is to have a partner like that, only in that it creates the best work.
Scott mentioned that you allowed him to move production on “The Black Phone” to work around the shooting schedule of star Madeleine McGraw. Have you done this often? More broadly, when it comes to giving a filmmaker freedom, what historically has that meant to you?
One of the jobs a producer has is to discern from the director when to give in and when not to give in. This is a great example of when he was really right. I don’t think the movie would work nearly as well with any other actress as well as it worked with Madeleine. And I could hear it in Scott’s voice. It was the same with Ethan [Hawke], by the way. He said, “I know it’s gonna cost a lot of extra money or this or that, but this is not a choice.”
The great thing about when you work with someone you’ve worked with before, you know when to move heaven and earth and when not to. So Scott and I, we have years of relationship. We have a great rapport with each other and a lot of trust and a lot of faith in each other. So I know when I hear a certain tone with him, I know it’s worth spending the extra money that we’re doing what we need to do [in order] to do what he wants.
What have you learned or how have you grown since you made “Sinister” with Scott 10 years ago?
It’s not always a healthy, productive conversation between producer and director on all these different things. And with Scott, it’s just always terrific. He’s a truly great director. I mean, there are not a lot of directors who elevate everything. Every scene in the script turned out better in the movie. Not that I didn’t like the script, but it rarely turns out like that. Most times, you read a script and the script is the dream, and the movie is the reality, and oftentimes, usually the dream is better than the reality. With Scott, it’s reversed.
As I get older as a CEO leading these companies, I think we’re better at the give and take of what to really draw the line with and what not to, and ultimately, you don’t succeed in our business as a production company unless your first order of business is to serve the artists that you work for.
What’s the state of the horror genre today? Are there still filmmakers emerging on the margins outside of the Blumhouse universe that are finding an audience?
The state of the genre is excellent. I don’t think there are a lot of genres that audiences still want to go to a movie theater to go see, and horror is one of them, which is great. It’s a great way for filmmakers who are interested in that theatrical experience and to get theatrical releases for their movies is to put the themes of the story they want to tell in the shell of a horror movie. People for whatever reason have loved horror for 100 years, and I would predict they are gonna love horror for another 100 years.
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