Jason Blum Tells NY Comic Con Fans The Blumhouse-Atomic Monster Merger Is “Very Close” To Closing; Co-Production ‘Night Swim’ Among Films In The Spotlight

Jason Blum said during a New York Comic Con panel that the merger of his company, Blumhouse, with James Wan’s Atomic Monster is “very close” to closing.

“It’s not quite done yet,” he said during the Universal Pictures “BlumFest” session. “It’s very close.”

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Word first emerged nearly a year ago that the two production entities were in advanced talks to join forces. Each is expected to continue operating its own consumer-facing label. Blumhouse is known for franchises like Paranormal Activity, The Purge, Halloween, Happy Death Day, Ouija, Unfriended, The Exorcist and Sinister. Atomic Monster, meanwhile, controls The Conjuring, Insidious and Saw. The companies have collectively grossed more than $11.6 billion worldwide since 2004 and they struck gold by teaming up for M3gan earlier this year. Wan, as a director, also made the highest-grossing DC movie ever, Aquaman,

Atomic Monster’s staffers “work differently than us,” Blum observed. “That’s what’s fun about the creative business. The second you have a formula, it doesn’t work. You can’t have a formula.”

The companies’ next co-production, Night Swim, was one of the projects featured at Comic Con. The film is slated for release in January 2024.

Director Bryce McGuire said Jaws helped inspire the film and served as a North Star as he sought to avoid making a “‘boo’-in-the-pool” movie when adapting his short into a feature.

“Jaws didn’t only ruin the beach. It ruined the pool too,” he said. A motivating factor “was me seeing Jaws at 9 years old and being in the pool at night.”

Recalling the development of Night Swim, Blum said admiringly of McGuire, “We always look for a certain dementia and a joy and reveling in scaring people.”

Five Nights at Freddy’s, due out Oct. 27, and Totally Killer, which went on Amazon Prime Video last week, also got plugs during the session. Freddy’s, directed by Emma Tammi, spent eight in development. Punctuating the session was a clip from the film, which is set in a Chuck E. Cheese-like pizzeria, whose animatronic casts has less-than-family-friendly intentions.

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