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The Academy establishednew diversification standardsfor Oscar eligibility.
Just about every major entertainment company issued public statements in support of inclusivity measures.
The series genesis predates the current Hollywood vogue for increased multicultural content by nearly two years.
The audience at Amazon is diverse, Blum adds.
Could you talk about how that dynamic changes when you put scary content on streaming?
Its like the guardrails come off.
Because when youre making a horror movie for theatrical release, its a very narrow lane.
The audience demands certain tropes.
When youre making it for streaming, you have a lot more leeway to take creative risks.
Jennifer Salke:This is an event for us.
Its a horror-thriller event with the best producer in the genre.
And horror-thrillers definitely have a strong fan base.
How much did you spend on each installment?JB:The movies were under $10 million apiece.
As soon as you get much higher than that, you start to have to make compromises.
You have to put movie stars [in them] or this or that.
You cant kill the main character ten minutes into the movie.
So we built a company on doing low-budget movies so we can take creative risks.
And when I first pitched it to Jen, that was what I wanted to do with this.
Veena Sud is perhaps the best known of the filmmakers in the first four episodes.
But where did you find the rest of your filmmakers?
When Jen first said, What could we do together?, I pitched this because Im always frustrated.
One or two of them, maybe we had been working on something before.
Others we found in conjunction with the team at Amazon.
But first of all, what you said is incorrect.
What youre implying is that weve made movies that we havent released.
We dont have a single movie that weve ever made that we havent released.
We release movies in different ways.
Could you name one movie weve made that we havent released?
This is the subject of fevered internet conjecture.
We announce every movie that we do.
You could see if it comes out or not.
There was an article a long time ago about it, but Im now aware of that now.
And so the second question youre asking relates to what I said before.
And none of the movies that I made for one destination wound up at another destination.
And streaming has provided a new, big lane, which is terrific.
The next four installments ofWelcome to the Blumhouseare scheduled for some unspecified time in 2021.
The global pandemic has obviously impacted the way everything these days is shot and ultimately released.
You guys are shooting 9 million more times than I am, so you should speak to that one.
JS:Its an incredibly trying time and remains so.
We were ahead of the game, as far as our protocols to get back into safe production.
I think they exceed the industry standard.
By the end of the year, we are hopeful to have about 60 productions going.
But I will say the recent upticks in Europe have caused some further challenges to that strategy.
We got them wrapped up safely.
JB:Luckily, lower-budgeted things are less compromised.
Theyre easier to do, and thats what weve found.
Were shooting our fourth movie for the second year [ofWelcome to the Blumhouse].
So its all about risk and containing the amount of people working on the productions.
Its hard to say because theaters are so compromised.
But I dont know.
Jen, what do you think?
JS:We are going to continue to support theatrical when it makes sense to come back.
How we translate that to filmmakers and to artists I think is the challenge.
Were just pivoting our distribution during a time where we are really, exceptionally challenged.
