Don’t Kill the Messenger welcomes 3-time Academy Award nominated producer and founder of Blumhouse Productions, Jason Blum.

Jason Blum, Producer

Jason is the founder and 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 is responsible for 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 the upcoming Halloween Ends.

Scary Test Scores from Ouija and Halloween

Billy and Kevin discuss what it takes to be a successful editor in Hollywood, and they delve into the process of what it is like to be in the editing room with such award-winning directors as Michael Mann and Ben Affleck. Goldenberg relates a story about going back and forth with Michael Mann while working on the film Ali.

Scores vs. Feel and the testing issues with an entirely unique movie like Get Out

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, and test scores come into play with an unclassifiable film.

The ending is the biggest thing that as you know, the biggest thing to make a movie test better is changing the ending that has the biggest impact. And if you have a great ending and the rest of the movie is just okay, it’s much better off than the rest of the movie being great and the ending not being so good. If you have a great ending, it really it helps an enormous amount. We had that with Get Out. We changed the ending of Get Out.

– Jason Blum

How streaming has changed audience research and the movie-going experience

The global pandemic saw the rise of streaming services, and Kevin talks about the changes in audience research due to this rise. What follows is a fascinating discussion of what types of movies do well theatrically vs. streaming, and what makes a film “theatrical.”

But why do I think The Black Phone is theatrical? I will tell you; I think it’s theatrical because it has an elevated sense of fun and that to me is the single biggest barometer of a theatrical experience.

– Kevin Goetz

Audience questions

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.

Anyone who’s a Blumhouse fan, who’s interested in movies should definitely get Kevin’s book (Audienceology) and read Kevin’s book because it’s like looking under the hood of how movies really get made and what really happens behind the scenes. It’s a terrific book.

– Jason Blum

Testing an early version of Beauty and the Beast

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. The two discuss the similarities and differences in the audience testing process between live action and animated movies.

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 on Kevin’s podcast, Don’t Kill the Messenger!

Don’t Kill the Messenger, hosted by movie and entertainment research expert Kevin Goetz, brings his book Audienceology to life. This bi-monthly podcast takes a peek behind the filmmaking curtain as Kevin talks with famous filmmakers, studio executives, stars, and other creatives about movies, filmmaking, audience test screenings, and much more.