What Jason Blum Can Teach Us About Owning a Flop
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Everyone loves to say they’ve “learned from failure.” It’s become a kind of badge of honor, especially in business and show business.
A quick search on Amazon will turn up nearly 100 books about the joys of failing: The Gift of Failure, Chasing Failure, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big. You get the idea.
We’ve all read interviews or seen TED Talks featuring a founder with a well-rehearsed story about how failure shaped their journey—complete with the Rocky theme playing in the background.
There’s nothing wrong with any of that, but those stories usually come after a cooling-off period and countless visits to a therapist, shaman, or psychic. And when they finally do speak publicly, it’s often in the afterglow of a big win.
You know what can be even more valuable? Talking about failure in real time. Raw. No spin. Instant reflection.
It rarely happens, but that’s exactly what Jason Blum just did.
If you’re not a movie nerd like me, Jason is the founder of Blumhouse Productions, the powerhouse behind low(er)-budget blockbusters like Get Out, The Purge, and Paranormal Activity.
He’s also the producer of the sci-fi horror comedy M3GAN, about an AI-powered killer robot that took TikTok and cinemas by storm in 2022, grossing over $180 million on just a $12 million budget.
Naturally, the surprise hit spawned a sequel released this summer: M3GAN 2.0.
Unfortunately, this time around M3GAN flopped—hard. It opened at the end of June with just $10 million after box office forecasters predicted $45 million.
Most people who experience a public failure like that usually hop on their private jet and go off the grid. Not Jason. Instead of laying low, he went on a podcast the next morning and asked to talk about it.
“I’ve been in pain all weekend long,” he said on The Town with Matthew Belloni. “I thought, you know what, if Blumhouse is in a slump, I’d like to tell that story. I don’t want other people to tell that story.”
That line hits hard—not just as a leader, but as someone willing to own the narrative when things go sideways. And Jason wasn’t there to do damage control. He wasn’t putting lipstick on a pig. He was there to be honest, even while still unpacking what went wrong.
“Everyone says, ‘Oh, I learned so much from failure,’” he continued. “But when they’re actually in it, they sweep it under the rug. They pretend it’s not happening… I wanted to come on the show when everything isn’t going right, in the middle of the pain, and talk about that.”
That kind of real talk is rare in any industry, but especially in one built on image and momentum. Yet it’s the kind of transparency that builds real trust—with colleagues, partners, audiences, and even yourself.
So what actually went wrong with M3GAN 2.0?
Blum, still mid-faceplant, offered up three likely missteps:
“We all thought Megan was like Superman,” he said. “We could do anything to her… and we classically overthought how powerful people’s engagement was really with her.”
It’s a trap that’s familiar to anyone who’s had a runaway success: the temptation to believe your audience will follow you anywhere. It happens in entertainment and business alike.
Coke had New Coke. Google had Google Glass. Amazon had the Fire Phone.
Interestingly, Blum says there’s no reliable pattern across failures.
“There is no common thread. That’s why the movie business is so fun,” he said. “You never really know.”
But one thing he does know? You can’t assume past success guarantees future results—especially in today’s climate.
“The death to success for an entrepreneur is to repeat what you’ve done before because it worked,” Blum said. “What is working now is very different than what used to work for Blumhouse—and we are internalizing that and pivoting as a result.”
And even with this faceplant, Blum stands by the creative risk. They tried something different. They swung big. And yeah, they missed—but not everything should be engineered to play it safe.
“We took a shot,” he said. “Can we take this horror movie and turn it into a crazy sci-fi action? I really hope people continue to take creative risks within the walls of their franchises. Otherwise, the movies will all feel the same.”
That’s the mindset that separates a real leader from someone who only shows up when things go well. Blum’s response wasn’t polished. He didn’t have all the answers. And that was the point.
“Sometimes it goes great and sometimes it doesn’t,” he said. “And it’s important to talk at both times.”
Don’t wait until the story is safe to share. Talk about it in real time. Talk when it’s raw, when you’re still figuring it out. That’s when it has the most power—not just for your audience, but for yourself.
