Jason Blum Says Hollywood’s Biggest Problem Is Making Movies Young People Don’t Want

For years, the prevailing theory about Hollywood’s box office struggles pointed the finger at streaming, shrinking attention spans, and a generation supposedly allergic to leaving their couches. That narrative has dominated industry conversations since the pandemic, framing declining ticket sales as an inevitable, permanent shift rather than a problem studios could actually fix.

This year’s numbers are telling a very different story. The domestic box office is on pace to cross 10 billion dollars for the first time in seven years, driven by a wave of unexpected hits that have nothing to do with legacy franchises or established stars, and everything to do with young, internet-born filmmakers finally getting a real shot.

Jason Blum, whose company Blumhouse Atomic Monster produced both ‘Obsession’ and ‘Backrooms’, laid out exactly why he thinks the industry stumbled for so long in a new cover story for Variety. According to Blum, the audience never actually disappeared; studios simply kept betting on the wrong material for the people who were still showing up. “The audience was out there, it’s just that we were making the wrong movies for them,” Blum told Variety, pointing directly at Hollywood’s long reliance on aging intellectual property that skewed more toward older generations than the moviegoers actually filling theater seats.

That theory tracks with what has actually happened at the box office in 2026. ‘Obsession’, made for just 750,000 dollars by newcomer director Curry Barker, has pulled in over 426 million dollars worldwide, a genuinely staggering return that includes second, third, and fourth weekends that outgrossed its opening. ‘Backrooms’, based on a YouTube horror series from 20 year old creator Kane Parsons, has added another 260 million dollars to that same pattern of low budget, internet rooted projects massively overperforming.

Blum was careful to note that this success is not simply a matter of plucking popular online creators and handing them a budget. He emphasized that both films succeeded because their directors spent years genuinely refining their scripts rather than rushing something out to capitalize on existing internet fame. “It’s not just about finding people who are popular on YouTube or TikTok and throwing a bunch of money at them,” he said, adding that the directors of both films toiled over their material for years before it ever reached a set.

That success has predictably set off a scramble across the industry to replicate the formula, with studios racing to option other viral internet properties. Recent announcements include a film based on the horror creation Siren Head, along with a Steven Spielberg produced adaptation of the YouTube series Mandela Catalogue, both clear attempts to catch lightning the same way ‘Backrooms’ and ‘Obsession’ did.

Blum’s comments arrive alongside broader evidence that Hollywood’s audience problem was never really about Gen Z abandoning theaters. According to Fandango research cited by Variety, 87 percent of Gen Z moviegoers saw at least one film in theaters over the past 12 months, a higher share than millennials, Gen X, or baby boomers, with younger audiences also averaging more theatrical visits per year than every older generation surveyed.

Other 2026 breakout hits reinforce the broader shift in what audiences actually want. ‘Project Hail Mary’ defied expectations with 683 million dollars globally, while the music biopic ‘Michael’ became the first film of its kind to cross 1 billion dollars in ticket sales despite a chaotic, delay plagued production. Amazon MGM head of film Courtenay Valenti echoed Blum’s sentiment about the industry needing to evolve rather than simply chase pre pandemic strategies, noting that audiences in 2026 look nothing like they did in 2018 or 2019.

Whether the current wave of internet-inspired projects manages to sustain this momentum or ends up as a short-lived trend remains to be seen, but for now, Hollywood finally has real data backing up what Blum has been arguing all along. Do you think studios have actually learned their lesson about making movies for younger audiences, or is this just a temporary trend before old habits creep back in? Let us know in the comments.