Jason Blum (Award Winning Producer) discusses Halloween, Streaming, Research, & More!

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Kevin is joined 3-time Academy Award nominated & Emmy Award winning producer, Jason Blum in this re-released interview from earlier this year. Jason is the founder & CEO of Blumhouse Productions, regarded as the driving force in the horror movie renaissance, and has produced over 150 movies and television series. He has been recognized by TIME magazine’s 100 list of the world’s most influential people and has appeared several times on Vanity Fair’s “New Establishment List.”
Jason Blum, Producer
Jason Blum has produced iconic franchises like Halloween, Paranormal Activity, Insidious, Happy Death Day, Sinister, among several others, and received Academy Award nominations for producing Whiplash, Get Out, and BlacKkKlansman. Jason is also a two-time Primetime Emmy Award-winning and a three-time Peabody Award-winning producer. More recently, Jason produced The Black Phone, and Halloween Ends.
Scary Test Scores from Ouija and Halloween (5:17)
Jason and Kevin discuss the Blumhouse movies with the biggest jump in scores following the audience test-screening process. They talk about Ouija and the original Halloween, and the massive jumps in scores after testing and reshooting.
Scores vs. Feel and the testing issues with an entirely unique movie like Get Out (14:54)
How does an audience respond to a movie that is unlike something they have never seen before? Kevin and Jason talk about audience testing for Get Out, and how the marketing, gut feeling, & test scores come into play with an unclassifiable film.
How streaming has changed audience research and the movie-going experience (20:47)
The global pandemic saw the rise of streaming services, and Kevin talks about the changes in audience research due to this rise. A fascinating discussion follows of what types of movies do well theatrically vs. streaming.
Audience questions (32:13)
Kevin fields questions from the audience including how much faith to put in the numbers that an audience gives verses the audience reaction, how many movie screenings before a film is released, and some insider stories from Kevin’s book, Audienceology, of how the audience research process led to massive DNA changes in some of the most well-known and loved movies in Hollywood.
Testing an early version of Beauty and the Beast (38:02)
Switching gears, Jason asks Kevin about audience testing and animated movies. Kevin recounts a story from Audienceology about audience testing for an early version of Beauty and the Beast.
Join Kevin and his guest, producer Jason Blum, and learn how they successfully used audience screen testing to craft some of the most iconic horror franchises of all time. Listen in on a fascinating discussion of the future of theatrical movies in the streaming era, and enjoy some insider stories.
Host: Kevin Goetz
Guest: Jason Blum
Producer: Kari Campano
For more information about Jason's upcoming projects:
Website: blumhouse.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Blumhouse/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/blumhouse
For more information about Kevin Goetz:
Website: www.KevinGoetz360.com
Audienceology Book: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Audience-ology/Kevin-Goetz/9781982186678
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram: @KevinGoetz360
Linked In @Kevin Goetz