Jason Blum Built a Hit-Making Movie Machine. Does It Still Work?

Jason Blum Built a Hit-Making Movie Machine. Does It Still Work?

From Channels with Peter Kafka by Vox Media Podcast Network

April 22, 2026 · 27 min

About this episode

Jason Blum discusses the evolution of his low-budget horror movie business model and the challenges facing Hollywood today.

Jason Blum built one of Hollywood’s smartest businesses: make low-budget horror movies, give filmmakers room, pay talent on the back end, and let the hits carry the misses. It worked so well that it became a Harvard Business Review case study.But the movie business that made that model work has changed: Theatrical is weaker, lots of people are making horror movies, studios are consolidating, and AI is the latest thing Hollywood is supposed to fear — or embrace.So I sat down with Blum at a live Business Insider event in San Francisco to ask what still works. We talked about why his new Mummy movie is a very different bet than the movies that built Blumhouse, why he thinks consolidation is bad for Hollywood even if new buyers like Amazon and Apple help offset it, why he’d make AI disappear from moviemaking if he could — while still insisting his team learn how to use it — and what he learns from flops. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

People in this episode

Host: Peter Kafka

Guest: Jason Blum

Topics covered

  • Hollywood
  • horror movies
  • business model
  • AI in film
  • film industry changes

Keywords

  • Jason Blum
  • horror movies
  • business model
  • AI
  • Hollywood
  • film industry

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Harvard Business Review, Business Insider, Amazon, Apple

Books & works: Mummy

More episodes of Channels with Peter Kafka

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Channels with Peter Kafka podcast page.