Producers Jason Blum and James Wan opened the Produced By conference on Saturday with a declaration that the film business is strongly rebounding from the post-COVID doldrums. The pair spoke with enthusiasm as their Blumhouse-Atomic Monster studio is riding high on the success of two buzzy box office hits — Focus Features’ “Obsession” and A24’s “Backrooms.”
“To me there’s almost this feeling of the ’70s of like this new generation of young people who are making edgy movies that are connecting in theaters in a crazy way,” Blum said in the opening session of Produced By, hosted by the Producers Guild of America on the Universal Studios lot.
“So many young people who didn’t grow up in a time when you couldn’t go to the movies and they haven’t had something for them to get off their iPad and go see the movie. Suddenly they have two movies,” Blum said. ” ‘Obsession’ this weekend went up 20% from last weekend. Last weekend it went up 30%.”
Wan declared flatly that “the horror genre keeps saving our industry” in the discussion moderated by PGA president Stephanie Allain.
Blum asserted that “Obsession,” made on a budget of $750,000, is now the highest-grossing film released domestically by Universal’s Focus Features specialty label.
More to come
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