Blumhouse hasn’t really seen any misses on the financial front. The quality of some of their efforts may be wanting (I’m looking at you The Gallows) but even a film like that becomes profitable when it grosses $43 million worldwide on a $100,000 budget. The fact that the studio can get behind any of its genre films, even when they may not be setting a new standard for horror, shows they care more about the mission of the person making the film and their roots, despite big profits, seem embedded in independent filmmaking.

Blumhouse Productions even finds success when it steps out of the genre a bit. 2015’s The Gift is an adult thriller at its finest and is very well one of the best efforts they have been involved with. The film was smart, well acted and cleverly executed. Critics responded in a big way with a solid 93% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes (some even declared it one of the best films released that year) and audiences flocked to the film as well with a worldwide gross of $59 million on a $5 million budget. For me, it shows the production company can make just about anything and that they aren’t defined by one genre.

Perhaps the biggest example of their ability to produce non-genre fare is their involvement with the critically acclaimed, Whiplash. The film cost $3.3 million to make and ended up grossing $49 million worldwide but even more impressive is that it gained serious awards attention which resulted in five Academy Award nominations. The film took home the awards for Best Supporting Actor (J.K. Simmons), Best Film Editing, Best Sound Mixing and received two further nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Picture. With Whiplash, Blumhouse put their name in the ring to be able to tackle any genre they saw fit.

Blumhouse and their relationship with Universal Pictures, as stated before, has turned into quite the union. Through their partnership, they have turned such films as Unfriended, Ouija, Ouija: Origin of Evil and The Boy Next Door into hits relative to their tiny budgets but perhaps the best aspect of their collaborations is the inclusion of M. Night Shyamalan for two key projects. Shyamalan was in a bit of a career slump before they teamed up on The Visit, another micro-budgeted effort that gave Shyamalan the creative boost he needed and turned the film into a $98.5 million worldwide hit on a $5 million budget. Blumhouse would team up with him again for January’s Split, which proved to be even more successful with $221 million worldwide (and counting) on a $9 million budget. Grosses like that make Blumhouse a major player in the industry.

Their respect for the creative talent behind the scenes is evident with the directors they have worked with over the years. Blumhouse has worked with directors such as James Wan (Insidious), Mike Flanagan (Oculus, Hush, Ouija: Origin of Evil), James DeMonaco (The Purge franchise), M. Night Shyamalan (The Visit, Split) and Scott Derrickson (Sinister). These are all filmmakers with a distinct voice and pitch-perfect for the independent sensibilities of the production company. Despite all of this great talent, their next collaborative effort will prove to be their most ambitious one to date for the horror genre.

On May 23, 2016, it was announced that Blumhouse, Miramax, and Trancas would be developing a new Halloween film, which they will co-finance. John Carpenter is set to produce the project and act as creative consultant. Carpenter made this simple but effective statement after the announcement was announced:

“Thirty-eight years after the original Halloween, I’m going to help to try to make the 10th sequel the scariest of them all”.

After the project hit a few snags, John Carpenter announced that the next Halloween film would be released on October 19, 2018, and is going to be written by David Gordon Green and Danny McBride and will be directed by Green. The film will also serve as a direct sequel to Halloween II (1981).

It seems fitting that Blumhouse would be the one to help resurrect the Halloween franchise. The series had some ups and downs when it was handled by Dimension Films but it’s clear that Blumhouse is the perfect home for it. This is a production company that cares about the genre and they seem to really care about the fans as well. The horror genre tends to get the least respect but I’m glad there is a company out there that values it and wants to see it thrive. I look forward to what Blumhouse Productions brings us next.

Check out the list below that shows just how much Blumhouse Productions has accomplished over the years. The grid shows the films along with budget and worldwide grosses: