Something pretty exciting happened earlier this week: James Wan's Atomic Monster (responsible for the Conjuring franchise, Malignant, M3GAN, and many more) and Jason Blum's Blumhouse (responsible for last year's blockbuster Five Nights at Freddy's adaptation, The Black Phone, and Get Out, to name just a few) officially joined forces, in a merger that brings two of Hollywood's biggest houses of horror together under one roof.
Said The Hollywood Reporter, at the time of the merger being finalized:
"Under the deal, Blumhouse and Atomic Monster will work as separate labels and retain creative independence, with a three-way ownership structure split by Blum, the majority owner; Wan; and Comcast, the parent company of NBCUniversal.
Wan and Blum have said the partnership will encourage greater collaboration between the two, and could mark an uptick in output, as well."
This merger had been in the works for some time, with the first reports of the deal emerging in November of 2022. In addition to encouraging greater collaboration and output from both production companies, those initial reports also mentioned that the deal would allow the pair to "scale their activities in film, TV and new content areas," which may include "horror-related games, live entertainment and audio."
The deal is also just a natural fit for both Blumhouse and Atomic Monster, who have worked together many times in the past - with films that generally turned out to be very successful. We here at FANGORIA are, of course, very eager to see what impact this merger will have on both companies' output, and are particular excited to see them expand their reach to include areas they haven't worked in before. As far as we can tell, this deal is very good news.
Stay tuned for more on Blumhouse and Atomic Monster's various goings-on as further updates roll in. Their next joint venture, Night Swim, is in theaters tomorrow.
