Jeff Shell praises Universal’s “unassailable position” as Blumhouse and Atomic Monster merge

NBC Universal boss Jeff Shell today offered a thoughtful but downright jazzy take on the potential merger of prolific horror producers Jason Blum and James Wan’s respective companies — Blumhouse and Atomic Monster — saying, “I can’t confirm, ” but: “If this should happen, we will be in an absolutely untenable position.

He was speaking at the UBS media conference today.

The two producers are in advanced talks to come together. If that’s the case, Atomic Monster will benefit from the first-look deal with Universal Pictures that Blumhouse currently has, after inking its own deal with Warner Bros. over the summer. The companies are expected to continue to operate as separate labels, each retaining their own creative autonomy and brand identity. The alliance will increase joint production between the production companies, with Atomic Monster using Blumhouse’s infrastructure to scale to film, television and new content, from games to live experiences and audio.

Blumhouse franchises include Paranormal activity, The raid, Halloween, Happy death day, Divide, Ouija, Unfriendly, The exorcist and Creepy. It was after The black phone with Ethan Hawke and this fall Hpermitted ends, the final chapter of her rebooted series. Atomic Monster is now known for his work on film series such as The evocative, the insidious and Saw. The two companies are co-producers of the horror thriller Universal M3gan out next year.

She praised the film world, where he said the economy is “significantly better than it was before Covid because the windows have finally been closed”. He said the 17-day PVOD window has become “extremely profitable” with 80-20 revenue splits versus 50-50 in theaters. “That is correct.”

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