Jason Blum’s Blumhouse and James Wan’s Atomic Monster close merger agreement

More than a year after expressing their intentions to merge their companies, horror masters Jason Blum and James Wan have made it official. Wan’s company Atomic Monster and Blum’s Blumhouse have closed a deal to merge, Blum announced on Tuesday X with a video showing titles like The spell, M3GAN and Go out.

“Horror’s most notable homes are now under one roof,” Blum captioned the video.

The two banners have worked together before and have the feature Night swimming in theaters Friday from Blumhouse’s longtime home of Universal, where his and Wan’s combined company have a first-look deal. The pair were also behind the 2023 hit. M3GAN and was associated for the first time in the Insidious franchise in 2010.

Under the deal, Blumhouse and Atomic Monster will work as separate labels and retain their creative independence, with a three-party ownership structure divided by Blum, the majority owner; Pale; and Comcast, the parent company of NBCUniversal.

Wan and Blum have said the partnership will foster greater collaboration between the two and could also mark an increase in production.

“We typically don’t do more than three or four plays a year, and my hope is that with James we can double that number to six or eight plays,” Blum said. The Hollywood Reporter in November 2022, shortly after announcing the possible agreement.

Blum is leaving Five nights at Freddy’s, the highest-grossing film in Blumhouse history. Wan is the mind behind numerous franchises, including Mountain range and The spell. It is currently in theaters with Aquaman and the lost kingdom, which like several superhero movies released last year, has struggled to find its place at the box office, where horror remains one of the few reliable draws. The merger comes as studios have stepped up their efforts to recruit horror talent. He Writer Gary Dauberman recently signed a first-look deal with Sony, while Paramount established Smile filmmaker Parker Finn with his own first-look deal.